Satellite rainfall estimates: new perspectives for meteorology and climate from the EURAINSAT project

Satellite meteorology is facing a crucial period of its history since recent missions have revealed instrumental for quantitative rainfall measurement from space and newly conceived missions are at hand. International partnership is rapidly developing and research projects keep the community focused on rapidly developing research and operational issues. A perspective is given through the structure of EURAINSAT, a project of the 5th Framework Programme of the European Commission. Its key objective is the development of algorithms for rapidly-updated satellite rainfall estimations at the geostationary scale. The project is fostering international research on satellite rainfall estimations building a bridge between Europe and the US for present and future missions.