Remote sensing of precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau using the TRMM microwave imager

The Tibetan Plateau is a unique location for studying the global climate and China's severe weather. The precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau can be studied conveniently with the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI). It is shown that the TMI brightness temperature at 85 GHz in the vertical polarization (TB85V) is negatively correlated to the surface rain rate, but a very low value of TB85V does not correspond to very intense surface rain rates on the Tibetan Plateau, a result that is different from what is observed in other areas of the world. For surface precipitation retrieval on the Tibetan Plateau from TMI, the effect from snow cover on precipitation retrieval is removed before analysis of precipitation. Using the dynamic cluster K-mean method, five categories of surface types and rain areas are identified on the Tibetan Plateau: dry soil, wet soil, water area, stratiform rain area, and convective rain area. The precipitation areas are screened by classification before the precipitation retrieval. Two datasets of rain-free areas and precipitation areas are formed after surface classification. Based on the dataset of rain-free areas, the value of TB85V can be simulated well by TB10V,TB19V, and TB21V when it is not raining. By means of the dataset of precipitation areas, it is revealed that the scattering index over land (SIL) is positively correlated and the polarization-corrected brightness temperature at 85 GHz (PCT85) is negatively correlated with the surface rain rate. With SIL, PCT85, and their combinations as retrieval algorithms, three precipitation retrieval formulas are proposed in which the SIL algorithm is most suitable for small rain retrieval, the PCT85 algorithm is most suitable for moderate rain retrieval, and the combined SIL and PCT85 algorithm is most suitable for relatively large rain retrieval on the Tibetan Plateau. By means of two thresholds, 265 and 245 K, for TB85V, the combination of the three formulas is applied to precipitation retrieval on the Tibetan Plateau during the Tibetan Plateau Experiment Intensive Observing Period of 1998, resulting in acceptable and encouraging surface rain-rate retrievals. Intercomparison among the TMI algorithms and the 17 Special Sensor Microwave Imager algorithms from the second Precipitation Intercomparison Project demonstrates that the comprehensive application of the TMI algorithms has good precision and error index and is suitable for precipitation retrieval on the Tibetan Plateau.