Calibration and validation studies over the North Atlantic and UK for the Global Precipitation Mission
Lead Research Organisation:
University of Leicester
Department Name: Physics and Astronomy
Abstract
Understanding the changing global precipitation patterns that result from a changing climate represents one of the great research priorities of the next decades. In order to better define the future we need to understand the present and the inter-annual variability of the precipitation cycle, which mirrors, in short periods, the expected climate-change-induced long-term variability. However, while observational studies based on the past 30 year records suggest rises in precipitation and evaporation at a global rate of 6-7%/K, global and regional climate models predict a muted response of the hydrologic cycle (2-3%/K). Quantitative estimation and prediction of precipitation still remain grand challenges in the hydrological and atmospheric sciences, both carrying huge uncertainties and thus preventing us from solving the previous conundrum. Observation-wise surface precipitation varies on spatial scales ranging from tens of meters to hundreds of kilometers, thus inhibiting the determination of spatio-temporal structures of precipitation fields from pointwise measurements only (e.g. rain gauges). Active and passive space-borne microwave measurements (precipitation radars, multi-wavelength radiometers) are considered to be suitable for estimating day and night-time precipitation rates and distributions on a planetary scale. Thanks to a satellite constellation concept the NASA-JAXA Global Precipitation Mission, due to launch early in 2014, promises to produce a significant step forward in improving coverage and reducing uncertainties in global precipitation products at a level sufficient to critically challenge numerical models. The presence of a first-ever-in-space dual frequency radar in the core satellite, with coverage up to 65 degrees latitude, will allow not only to know how much rain falls at the surface but also the detailed three-dimensional knowledge of rain, snow, and other forms of precipitation within the atmosphere above the surface and, with it, the links and the transfer of latent heat energy between the Earth's surface and atmosphere. This is an unprecedented opportunity in the mid-latitudes.
In our effort, by specifically focusing on UK and on the North Atlantic region, we will address two scientific objectives:
1) To quantify, understand, and potentially mitigate regime dependent biases that are present in today's passive microwave rainfall retrieval over ocean; 2) to critically assess the potential of Global Precipitation Mission-era passive microwave rainfall over mid-latitude coastal and rural areas. The UKMO radar network will be used as ground-reference for the satellite products; as a result, improvements on radar-based rainfall estimates over UK are expected as well. In addition, through improved measurements of precipitation globally, the Global Precipitation Mission will help advancing our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycle, improving forecasting of extreme events that cause natural hazards and disasters, and extending current capabilities in using accurate and timely information of precipitation to directly benefit society. This project will foster and help UK scientists and UK society in taking full advantage of such a unique opportunity.
In our effort, by specifically focusing on UK and on the North Atlantic region, we will address two scientific objectives:
1) To quantify, understand, and potentially mitigate regime dependent biases that are present in today's passive microwave rainfall retrieval over ocean; 2) to critically assess the potential of Global Precipitation Mission-era passive microwave rainfall over mid-latitude coastal and rural areas. The UKMO radar network will be used as ground-reference for the satellite products; as a result, improvements on radar-based rainfall estimates over UK are expected as well. In addition, through improved measurements of precipitation globally, the Global Precipitation Mission will help advancing our understanding of Earth's water and energy cycle, improving forecasting of extreme events that cause natural hazards and disasters, and extending current capabilities in using accurate and timely information of precipitation to directly benefit society. This project will foster and help UK scientists and UK society in taking full advantage of such a unique opportunity.
Planned Impact
Life depends upon water. It impacts our lives and the natural environment through the every-day weather and the hydrological extremes of floods and drought. On a scientific level, water is one of the main drivers of the climate system, transferring and regulating energy within it. Despite the importance of water to us and the Earth system, our current knowledge of the occurrence and distribution of water across the planet and the mechanisms that drive the water cycle is very limited. Furthermore, our ability to accurately predict precipitation and its inherent spatio-temporal variability have not reached a mature level, partly due to the currently poor capability to accurately represent clouds and precipitation systems in cloud-resolving, regional and global models. The same applies to climate models and climate prediction. The GPM mission has a large potential towards advancing our knowledge of the global water cycle and its variability in a changing climate. It will provide, particularly over mid-latitude regions, improved measurements and predictions of precipitation that will lead to a greater understanding of water balances and processes of interest for water resources management, to a deeper insight in microphysics control on severe rainfall processes and to obvious consequential benefits for the UK society (e.g. improved capabilities in predicting flood and flash-flood producing storms).
Beneficiaries from this research will be (i) ESA and EUMETSAT, (ii) weather forecasting and climate prediction institutions like the UKMO, ECMWF, (iii) water management companies (especially in developing countries) , (iv) the International Panel on Climate Change, (v) UK government organizations and (vi) the general public.
The proposed research is extremely relevant and timely for upcoming ESA/EUMETSAT MetOp follow missions that will have three operational microwave instruments and will be part of the GMP constellation.
Weather forecasting and climate prediction institutions will benefit from an improved understanding of precipitation processes on all scales. GPM radiometer constellation will produce global estimates of precipitation within storms and our methodology will avoid or at least mitigate biases in such retrievals over the mid-latitudes. Our results will contribute to the final quality of the GPM mission products and, in the medium to long term, to improved micro-physical parameterizations and precipitation processes in weather and climate prediction models. Similarly the cross-calibration study between the GPM radar and the Met Office radars will contribute to improve precipitation products over UK with obvious benefit for organizations like DECC and DEFRA. Improved over-land precipitation products will be beneficial to water management companies, especially in developing countries where the ground-based measuring network is almost totally absent.
Climate change will have profound impact on the water cycle, the precipitation being one of the most unpredictable variables in a climate change scenario. While there is a general agreement on the fact that a warmer climate will also be wetter, there is no consensus on the amplitude of such an increase in precipitation and in the spatial patterns associated with it. The distribution of precipitation is likely to change as well, with frequency of heavy precipitation, polar precipitation and tropical cyclone intensity likely to increase, and precipitation over subtropical arid land regions likely to decrease (IPPC 2007 Report). Our research will improve understanding of precipitation events and their frequency of occurrence over the mid-latitudes and over UK, with great impact for government organizations and the wider public. The PI will act as GPM 'ambassador' in the UK and will convey the relevance of this mission both to the UK scientists and to the UK public with an articulated outreach program.
Beneficiaries from this research will be (i) ESA and EUMETSAT, (ii) weather forecasting and climate prediction institutions like the UKMO, ECMWF, (iii) water management companies (especially in developing countries) , (iv) the International Panel on Climate Change, (v) UK government organizations and (vi) the general public.
The proposed research is extremely relevant and timely for upcoming ESA/EUMETSAT MetOp follow missions that will have three operational microwave instruments and will be part of the GMP constellation.
Weather forecasting and climate prediction institutions will benefit from an improved understanding of precipitation processes on all scales. GPM radiometer constellation will produce global estimates of precipitation within storms and our methodology will avoid or at least mitigate biases in such retrievals over the mid-latitudes. Our results will contribute to the final quality of the GPM mission products and, in the medium to long term, to improved micro-physical parameterizations and precipitation processes in weather and climate prediction models. Similarly the cross-calibration study between the GPM radar and the Met Office radars will contribute to improve precipitation products over UK with obvious benefit for organizations like DECC and DEFRA. Improved over-land precipitation products will be beneficial to water management companies, especially in developing countries where the ground-based measuring network is almost totally absent.
Climate change will have profound impact on the water cycle, the precipitation being one of the most unpredictable variables in a climate change scenario. While there is a general agreement on the fact that a warmer climate will also be wetter, there is no consensus on the amplitude of such an increase in precipitation and in the spatial patterns associated with it. The distribution of precipitation is likely to change as well, with frequency of heavy precipitation, polar precipitation and tropical cyclone intensity likely to increase, and precipitation over subtropical arid land regions likely to decrease (IPPC 2007 Report). Our research will improve understanding of precipitation events and their frequency of occurrence over the mid-latitudes and over UK, with great impact for government organizations and the wider public. The PI will act as GPM 'ambassador' in the UK and will convey the relevance of this mission both to the UK scientists and to the UK public with an articulated outreach program.
Organisations
- University of Leicester (Lead Research Organisation)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) (Collaboration)
- Stony Brook University (Collaboration)
- University of Clermont Auvergne (Collaboration)
- National Aeronautics and Space Administration (Project Partner)
- Colorado State University (Project Partner)
- Met Office (Project Partner)
- University of Wisconsin–Madison (Project Partner)
- University of Maryland, College Park (Project Partner)
People |
ORCID iD |
Alessandro Battaglia (Principal Investigator) |
Publications
Battaglia A
(2016)
Multiple-Scattering-Induced "Ghost Echoes" in GPM DPR Observations of a Tornadic Supercell
in Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
Battaglia A
(2014)
The Dual Wavelength Ratio Knee: A Signature of Multiple Scattering in Airborne Ku-Ka Observations
in Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
Battaglia A
(2016)
Using a multiwavelength suite of microwave instruments to investigate the microphysical structure of deep convective cores.
in Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres : JGR
Battaglia A
(2015)
Multiple scattering in observations of the GPM dual-frequency precipitation radar: Evidence and impact on retrievals.
in Journal of geophysical research. Atmospheres : JGR
Mroz K
(2017)
Hail-Detection Algorithm for the GPM Core Observatory Satellite Sensors
in Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
Mroz K
(2018)
Global Precipitation Measuring Dual-Frequency Precipitation Radar Observations of Hailstorm Vertical Structure: Current Capabilities and Drawbacks
in Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology
Ramadhan R
(2022)
Capability of GPM IMERG Products for Extreme Precipitation Analysis over the Indonesian Maritime Continent
in Remote Sensing
Tridon F
(2017)
Rain retrieval from dual-frequency radar Doppler spectra: validation and potential for a midlatitude precipitating case-study
in Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society
Tridon F
(2017)
Evaporation in action sensed by multiwavelength Doppler radars
in Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
Watters D
(2018)
Validation of the GPM Version-5 Surface Rainfall Products over Great Britain and Ireland
in Journal of Hydrometeorology
Watters D
(2020)
The NASA-JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement mission - part II : New frontiers in precipitation science
in Weather
Watters D
(2020)
The NASA-JAXA Global Precipitation Measurement mission - part I: New frontiers in precipitation
in Weather
Description | The project is contributing to improve the Level2 NASA GPM DPR product via introducing a flagging for profiles likely contaminated by multiple scattering and non uniform beam filling and by using an ad-hoc retrieval for such profiles. Also the project has validated GPM products over UK via the UK MetOffcie radars |
First Year Of Impact | 2017 |
Sector | Environment |
Impact Types | Cultural |
Description | CENTA DTP Studentship |
Amount | £60,000 (GBP) |
Organisation | Natural Environment Research Council |
Sector | Public |
Country | United Kingdom |
Start | 09/2017 |
End | 02/2021 |
Description | ESA ITT Multifrequency radar instrument study |
Amount | € 300,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | ESA - ESTEC |
Sector | Public |
Country | Netherlands |
Start | 03/2017 |
End | 10/2018 |
Description | Multi-frequency radar instrument study |
Amount | € 300,000 (EUR) |
Organisation | ESA - ESTEC |
Sector | Public |
Country | Netherlands |
Start | 04/2017 |
End | 12/2018 |
Title | Best proxies for hail detection with remote sensing from space |
Description | By comparison with ground-based observation, the best GPM proxy for hail detection is the mean radar reflectivity above the freezing level (with slightly better performances when using dual-frequency) |
Type Of Material | Improvements to research infrastructure |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | This research tool will allow to produce a database of world hail occurence |
Title | World map of hail occurence |
Description | Global map of hail frequency from GPM spaceborne dual-frequency radar |
Type Of Material | Database/Collection of data |
Provided To Others? | No |
Impact | Such database can help insurance companies to assess the risks related to hail damage. |
Description | Clermont University (France) |
Organisation | Blaise Pascal University |
Department | Laboratory of Physical Meteorology |
Country | France |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We provided retrievals of the vertical variability of rain microphysical parameters for a squall line observed over Oklahoma. |
Collaborator Contribution | They ran WRF simulations of the case study and performed sensitivity studies on the parametrization of rain microphysics in order to explain discrepancies with observations. |
Impact | The intercomparison of rain properties shows that the most used microphysical schemes of the WRF model can not reproduce observations. A paper is in preparation. |
Start Year | 2016 |
Description | NASA Goddard |
Organisation | National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We are currently analysing the multi-frequency airborne Doppler radar data for two deep convective systems occurred during the HYPHEx campaign in 2014. A paper is almost ready for submission |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr. Gerry Heymsfield is providing airborne Doppler radar data for different GPM GV campaigns |
Impact | Paper currently under submission How deep and what can a multi-wavelength suite of microwave instruments see in deep convective cores? by A. Battaglia, F. Tridon, K. Mroz, S. Tanelli, Tim Lang, Gerry Heymsfield Lin Tian |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | NASA JPL |
Organisation | National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
Department | Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | Dr Battaglia is international collaborator in the 'Advanced datasets to diagnose higher-order features embedded in expected GPM measurements and their impact on retrieval algorithms' project part of the NASA ROSES Precipitation Science Research Program and led by Dr S. Tanelli, NASA-JPL. Our research team is developing retrieval algorithm for rain and snow and it is applying them to the airborne datasets provided by JPL. |
Collaborator Contribution | Dr Tanelli, PI of the APR-3 radar, is providing datastes collected during GPM field campaigns and collaborating with us on the development of retrieval algorithms. |
Impact | Several papers with co-authorships of S. Tanelli K. Mroz, Battaglia, A., T. Lang, D. Cecil, S. Tanelli and F.Tridon, Hail detection algorithm for the GPM core satellite sensors, 2017, conditionally accepted in JAMC. Burns, D., P. Kollias, A. Tatarevic, A. Battaglia, S. Tanelli, The Performance of the EarthCARE Cloud Profiling Radar in Marine Stratiform Clouds, 2016, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 10.1002/2016JD025090. Battaglia, A., K. Mroz, T. Lang, F. Tridon, S. Tanelli, L. Tian and G. Heymsfield, Using a multi-wavelength suite of microwave instruments to investigate the microphysical structure of deep convective cores, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2016, 10.1002/2016JD025269. Battaglia, A., K., S. Tanelli, F. Tridon, P.E. Kirstetter, Multiple-scattering-induced "ghost echoes" in GPM-DPR observations of a tornadic supercell, DOI: http://dx.doi.org/10.1175/JAMC-D-15-0136. |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | NASA Marshall |
Organisation | National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
Department | Marshall Space Flight Center |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We have used data from AMPR radiometer and used to retrieve the microphysics in deep convective cores |
Collaborator Contribution | They have helped in the interpretation of brightness temperatures and they have provided data of collocated ground-based polarimetric radars |
Impact | K. Mroz, Battaglia, A., T. Lang, D. Cecil, S. Tanelli and F.Tridon, Hail detection algorithm for the GPM core satellite sensors, 2017, conditionally accepted in JAMC. Battaglia, A., K. Mroz, T. Lang, F. Tridon, S. Tanelli, L. Tian and G. Heymsfield, Using a multi-wavelength suite of microwave instruments to investigate the microphysical structure of deep convective cores, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2016, 10.1002/2016JD025269 |
Start Year | 2015 |
Description | StonyBrook and ARM collaborators |
Organisation | Stony Brook University |
Department | School of Marine and Atmospheric Sciences |
Country | United States |
Sector | Academic/University |
PI Contribution | We have been involved in analysing ARM datasets of multifrequency Doppler observations |
Collaborator Contribution | They have provided expertise in the quality control and calibration of radar data and their own retrieval |
Impact | Tridon F. and Battaglia, A., P. Kollias and E. Luke, Rain retrieval from dual-frequency radar Doppler spectra: validation and potential for a midlatitude precipitating case study, 2017, QJRMS, doi:10.1002/qj.3010 Kneifel, S., Kollias, P., Battaglia, A., Leinonen, J., Maahn, M., Kalesse, H., Tridon, F., First observations of triple-frequency radar Doppler spectra in snowfall: Interpretation and applications, Geophys. Res. Lett., 2016, 43, doi: 10.1002/2015GL067618. 49. F Tridon, A Battaglia, Dual-frequency radar Doppler spectral retrieval of rain drop size distributions and entangled dynamics variables, Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 10.1002/2014JD023023 |
Start Year | 2014 |
Description | collaboration with NASA GISS |
Organisation | National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) |
Department | NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies |
Country | United States |
Sector | Public |
PI Contribution | We have been working on retrievals of stratiform rain during the OLYMPEX field campaign. We are providing ice microphysical properties as derived from multi frequency radar observations, which are useful for 2-moment microphysics scheme. |
Collaborator Contribution | The group led by Ann Fridlind is providing GCM and LES model outputs to be compared with our measurements and tries to improve cloud parameterizations. |
Impact | Successful proposal to US-DoE on Antarctic clouds |
Start Year | 2017 |