Development of a regional rain retrieval algorithm for exclusive mesoscale convective systems over peninsular India

Abstract The present study emphasize the development of a region specific rain retrieval algorithm by taking into accounts the cloud features. Brightness temperatures ( T bs ) from various TRMM Microwave Imager (TMI) channels are calibrated with near surface rain intensity as observed from the TRMM – Precipitation Radar. It shows that T b – R relations during exclusive-Mesoscale Convective System (MCS) events have greater dynamical range compared to combined events of non-MCS and MCS. Increased dynamical range of T b – R relations for exclusive-MCS events have led to the development of an Artificial Neural Network (ANN) based regional algorithm for rain intensity estimation. By using the exclusive MCSs algorithm, reasonably good improvement in the accuracy of rain intensity estimation is observed. A case study of a comparison of rain intensity estimation by the exclusive-MCS regional algorithm and the global TRMM 2A12 rain product with a Doppler Weather Radar shows significant improvement in rain intensity estimation by the developed regional algorithm.