Retrieval of Precipitation from Microwave Airborne Sensors during TOGA COARE

Abstract The aim of this paper is to report on the retrieval of the vertically averaged liquid cloud water content and vertically averaged precipitation rates (rain and ice) from microwave airborne radiometric observations in a two-plane parallel layer atmosphere. The approach is based on the inversion of a simple radiative transfer model in which a raindrop size distribution derived from microphysical measurements is introduced. The microwave data (18.7, 21, 37, and 92 GHz) used were acquired by the Airborne Multichannel Microwave Radiometer and Advanced Microwave Moisture Sounder on board NASA DC8 within a mesoscale convective system on 6 February 1993 during the Tropical Oceans Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment. Before interpreting the results, the quality of the inversion is checked. The fit between the measured and the model-retrieved brightness temperatures is good when compared to the model and measurements uncertainties. Doppler radar data from three other aircraft hel...