Search

An Infrared (IR)-passive microwave (PMW) blended technique is developed to derive precipitation estimates over the Asia-Pacific domain through calibrating the temperature of brightness blackbody from the Japanese Himawari-8 satellite to precipitation derived from the combined PMW retrievals (currently MWCOMB2x) based on the probability density function (PDF)-matching concept. Called IRQPE, the technique is modified and fine-tuned to better represent the spatially rapidly changing cloud–precipitation relationship over the target region with PDF-matching tables established over a refined spatial resolution of 0.5° lat/lon grid. The evaluation of the IRQPE shows broadly comparable performance to that of the CMORPH2 in detecting rainfall systems of large and medium-scales at a resolution of 1.0° degree. Rainfall variations from the two datasets over El Niño-Southern Oscillation and the Madden Julian Oscillation active convective centers show well consistency of each other, suggesting usefulness of the IRQPE in climate applications. Two approaches for regional improvements are explored by establishing the PDF tables for a further refined spatial resolution and by replacing the PMW-based precipitation 'truth' fields with the surface gauge data to overcome the shortcoming of PMW-based retrievals in capturing orographic rainfall over the Taiwan area. The results show significant improvements. The rainfall patterns of revised the IRQPE at a resolution of 0.1° degree on above the 5-day timescale correlate well with the Taiwan official surface ground truth called the QPESUMS, which is a gridded set of gauge-corrected Radar quantitative precipitation estimations. The root mean square error of the revised IRQPE on estimating the Taiwan overall land rainfall is close to Radar-derived rainfall accumulations on a 30-day time-scale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Recently, some riser vortex-induced vibrations (VIVs) experimental data have been made publicly available (oe.mit.edu/VIV/) including a 10 m riser VIV experiment performed by Marintek, Trondheim, Norway, and donated by ExxonMobil URC, Houston, TX, USA. This paper presents our numerical simulation results for this 10 m riser and the comparisons with the experimental results in uniform current. The riser was made of a 10 m brass pipe with an outer diameter of O.02 m (L/D = 482) and a mass ratio of 1.75. The riser was positioned vertically with top tension of 817 N and pinned at its two ends to the test rig. Rotating the rig in the wave tank would simulate the uniform current. In the present numerical simulation the riser's ends were pinned to the ground and a uniform far field incoming current was imposed. The riser and its surrounding fluid were discretized using 1.5 x [10.sup.6] elements. The flow field is solved using an unsteady Reynolds-averaged Navier-Stokes (RANS) numerical method in conjunction with a chimera domain decomposition approach with overset grids. The riser is also discretized into 250 segments. Its motion is predicted through a tensioned beam motion equation with external force obtained by integrating viscous and pressure loads on the riser surface. Then the critical parameters including riser VIV amplitude (a) to the riser outer diameter (D) ratio (a/D), vorticity contours, and motion trajectories were processed. The same parameters for the experimental data were also processed since these data sets are in 'raw time-histories' format. Finally, comparisons are made and conclusions are drawn. The present numerical method predicts similar dominant modes and amplitudes as the experiment. It is also shown that the cross flow VIV in the riser top section is not symmetric to that of the bottom section. One end has considerably higher cross flow vibrations than the other end, which is due to the nondominant modal vibrations in both in-line and cross flow directions. The computational fluid dynamics (CFD) simulation results also agree with the experimental results very well on the riser vibrating pattern and higher harmonics response. The higher harmonics were studied and it is found that they are related to the lift coefficients, hence the vortex shedding patterns. It is concluded that the present CFD approach is able to provide reasonable results and is suitable for 3D riser VIV analysis in deepwater and complex current conditions. [DOI: 10.1115/1.4000498]