Outstanding Publication Award

Recipient(s)
Jothiram Vivekanandan (Research Applications Program), Joseph Turk (Colorado State University), and V. N. Bringi (CSU)
Award Year
1994
Award Type
internal
Awarding Organization or Entity
UCAR

The problem of measuring precipitation from space is examined through use of NASA's AMPR instrument and NCAR's CP-2 multiparameter radar during the Convection and Precipitation/Electrification Experiment in central Florida. Vast regions of the globe have inadequate ground-based measurements of precipitation. The CP-2 data are used in this paper to infer particle size, shape, and composition within convection; these variables are then compared to radiometer-derived brightness temperature. This, the first paper to show AMPR's potential to study microphysics within convective storms, is a pioneering effort toward classifying and measuring global precipitation using satellite-based instruments.