Comparison of global rainfall estimations derived from SSM/I measurements and a general circulation model

Monthly rainfall totals over global oceans with a spatial resolution of 2.8 degrees are estimated by both a retrieval algorithm applied to passive microwave measurements by the Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) onboard the polar orbiting Defense Meteorological Satellite Program (DMSP) and a model experiment run by the European Center model HAMburg Climate Version (ECHAM) coupled with the Large Scale Geostrophic (LSG) ocean model for a comparison between summer 1987 and 1988. The most significant features coincide very well while the regional rain distributions show differences, in particular in the tropical monsoon areas. >