著者

YAMAJI Moeka TAKAHASHI Hiroshi G. KUBOTA Takuji OKI Riko HAMADA Atsushi TAKAYABU Yukari N.

出版者

Meteorological Society of Japan

雑誌

気象集誌. 第2輯 (ISSN:00261165)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2020-038, (Released:2020-05-27)

被引用文献数

18

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This study investigates the global drop size distribution (DSD) of rainfall and its relationship to large-scale precipitation characteristics using the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) onboard the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core Observatory. This study focuses on seasonal variations in the dominant precipitation systems regarding variations in DSD. A mass-weighted mean diameter (Dm), which is estimated based on the dual-frequency information derived from the GPM/DPR, is statistically analyzed as a typical parameter of the DSD. Values of the annual mean Dm, in general, are larger over land than over the oceans, and the relationship between Dm and precipitation rate (R) is not a simple one-to-one relationship. Furthermore, Dm exhibits statistically significant seasonal variations, specifically over the northwest Pacific Ocean, whereas R shows insignificant variations, indicating the variations in R cannot explain the distinct seasonal changes in Dm. Focusing on the seasonal variation in Dm over the northwest Pacific Ocean, the results indicate that the variation in Dm is related to the seasonal change in the dominant precipitation systems. In the summer over the northwest Pacific Ocean, Dm is related to the organized precipitation systems associated with the Baiu front over the mid-latitudes and tropical disturbances over the subtropical region, with relatively higher precipitation top heights, composed of both stratiform and convective precipitations. Contrary to the summer, larger Dm over the mid-latitudes in winter is related to extratropical frontal systems with ice particles in the upper layers, which consists of more stratiform precipitation in the storm track region. The smaller Dm over the subtropical northwest Pacific Ocean in winter is associated with shallow convective precipitation systems with trade-wind cumulus clouds and cumulus congestus under the subtropical high.

著者

YAMAJI Moeka KUBOTA Takuji YAMAMOTO Munehisa K.

出版者

Meteorological Society of Japan

雑誌

気象集誌. 第2輯 (ISSN:00261165)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2021-033, (Released:2021-02-17)

被引用文献数

8

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Reliability information of satellite precipitation products is required for various applications. This study describes and evaluates a reliability flag of the Global Satellite Mapping of Precipitation Near-Real-Time precipitation product (GSMaP_NRT). This flag was developed to characterize the reliability of GSMaP_NRT data simply and qualitatively by considering its algorithm characteristics. The reliability at each pixel is represented by any one of ten levels (10 being the best and 1 the worst) by considering three major factors: 1) “surface type reliability”—which takes into account that estimation of rainfall using passive microwave sensors is better over the oceans than over land and coastal areas; 2) “low-temperature reliability”—which takes into account the lower reliability due to surface snow cover in low-temperature conditions; and 3) “Moving Vector with Kalman Filter (MVK) propagation reliability”—which means that the reliability gets worse with the increase in time since the last overpass of the passive microwave sensor. To evaluate the utility of the reliability flag, statistical indices are calculated for each reliability level using gauge-calibrated ground radar data around Japan. It is found that the reliability flag represents the differences in GSMaP accuracy: the accuracy worsens as the reliability decreases. The GSMaP errors exhibit seasonal changes that are well represented by the ten levels of the reliability flag, indicating that the reliability flag can be used to catch seasonal variations in GSMaP accuracy due to changes in environmental factors. This study also raises the possibility of improving the reliability flag by using information related to heavy orographic rainfall. It is shown how the error features of heavy orographic rainfall differ from those of the total rainfall, and it is suggested that heavy orographic rainfall information can be utilized to further improve the reliability flag.