SSM/I and the Montagnana radar data fusion to analyse clouds over Tuscany

The present work empirically deals with the challenging problem of the integration of data obtained from passive and active microwave sources, in order to develop procedures to suitably calibrate and validate satellite-based passive microwave rainfall algorithms by means of multiparameter radar information over midlatitude areas (Tuscany in particular). Furthermore, this research tries to analyse the well-known beam-filling problem and the different microwave channel penetration topic. SSM/I passive microwave radiometer precipitation related parameters were analysed against multiparameter radar Zh and Zdr 3-D maps, obtained from the POLAR-55C multiparameter radar set near Florence, Italy. SSM/I-derived parameters, related to rainfall over land were analysed by means of information derived from radar volume data (i.e. the sequence of CAPPI slices and RHI slices). We faced several statistical analyses of the obtained data sets. Results report the effectiveness of Montagnana radar and SSM/I data fusion. In particular, it is assessed the utility of utilising both active and passive microwave hydrometeor-related information in order to improve the inferences about monitored phenomena. Results are valuable in order to better calibrate and validate passive microwave algorithms for rainfall rate estimation and for cloud detection over land. Correlation values may be improved by filtering radar data according to several parameters thresholds, in order to tackle beam-filling problem and statistical issues.