Microwave monitoring of rainfall: Intercomparisons of data from the Chilbolton radar and the DMSP‐SSM/I

Ground‐based multi‐parameter radar is used to validate and evaluate satellite passive microwave parameters related to rainfall over land. Light precipitation over the southern part of England is considered. The issues of diverse resolutions of radar and satellite data in space and time are investigated, as well as the satellite beam‐filling problem, in relation to present passive microwave satellite algorithms related to rainfall over land, and their perceived behaviour. Several statistical analyses are applied and their sensitivities to data integration problems are quantified. Passive microwave parameters are evaluated and compared with each other. It is concluded that for radar passive microwave satellite data intercomparisons, calibrations and validations the time resolution seems to be more important than the spatial resolution, and high‐resolution radar can be used operationally to tackle the satellite beam‐filling problem. It is found that several passive microwave algorithms have performances very similar to each other. Copyright © 1997 Royal Meteorological Society