Can the GPM IMERG Final Product Accurately Represent MCSs’ Precipitation Characteristics over the Central and Eastern United States?

Cui, Wenjun; Dong, Xiquan; Xi, Baike; Feng, Zhe; Fan, Jiwen

doi:10.1175/JHM-D-19-0123.1

Title: Can the GPM IMERG Final Product Accurately Represent MCSs’ Precipitation Characteristics over the Central and Eastern United States?

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Abstract

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) play an important role in water and energy cycles as they produce heavy rainfall and modify the radiative profile in the tropics and midlatitudes. An accurate representation of MCSs’ rainfall is therefore crucial in understanding their impact on the climate system. The V06B Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals from Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) half-hourly precipitation final product is a useful tool to study the precipitation characteristics of MCSs because of its global coverage and fine spatiotemporal resolutions. However, errors and uncertainties in IMERG should be quantified before applying it to hydrology and climate applications. This study evaluates IMERG performance on capturing and detecting MCSs’ precipitation in the central and eastern United States during a 3-yr study period against the radar-based Stage IV product. The tracked MCSs are divided into four seasons and are analyzed separately for both datasets. IMERG shows a wet bias in total precipitation but a dry bias in hourly mean precipitation during all seasons due to the false classification of nonprecipitating pixels as precipitating. These false alarm events are possibly caused by evaporation under the cloud base or the misrepresentation of MCS cold anvil regions as precipitating clouds by the algorithm. IMERG agrees reasonably wellmore »« less

Authors:

Cui, Wenjun ^[1]; Dong, Xiquan ^[1]; Xi, Baike ^[1]; Feng, Zhe ^[2]; Fan, Jiwen ^[2]

Department of Hydrology and Atmospheric Sciences, The University of Arizona, Tucson, Arizona
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington

Publication Date:: Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020

Research Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)

OSTI Identifier:: 1591969

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1600629

Report Number(s):: PNNL-SA-149317
Journal ID: ISSN 1525-755X

Grant/Contract Number:: AC05-76RL01830; SC0017015

Resource Type:: Published Article

Journal Name:: Journal of Hydrometeorology

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Journal of Hydrometeorology Journal Volume: 21 Journal Issue: 1; Journal ID: ISSN 1525-755X

Publisher:: American Meteorological Society

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Precipitation; Mesoscale systems; Radars/Radar observations; Satellite observations

Citation Formats


                    Cui, Wenjun, Dong, Xiquan, Xi, Baike, Feng, Zhe, and Fan, Jiwen. Can the GPM IMERG Final Product Accurately Represent MCSs’ Precipitation Characteristics over the Central and Eastern United States?.  United States: N. p., 2020. 
Web.  doi:10.1175/JHM-D-19-0123.1.

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                    Cui, Wenjun, Dong, Xiquan, Xi, Baike, Feng, Zhe, & Fan, Jiwen. Can the GPM IMERG Final Product Accurately Represent MCSs’ Precipitation Characteristics over the Central and Eastern United States?.  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-19-0123.1

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                    Cui, Wenjun, Dong, Xiquan, Xi, Baike, Feng, Zhe, and Fan, Jiwen. Wed .  
"Can the GPM IMERG Final Product Accurately Represent MCSs’ Precipitation Characteristics over the Central and Eastern United States?".  United States.  https://doi.org/10.1175/JHM-D-19-0123.1.

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@article{osti_1591969,

  title        = {Can the GPM IMERG Final Product Accurately Represent MCSs’ Precipitation Characteristics over the Central and Eastern United States?},

  author       = {Cui, Wenjun and Dong, Xiquan and Xi, Baike and Feng, Zhe and Fan, Jiwen},

  abstractNote = {Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) play an important role in water and energy cycles as they produce heavy rainfall and modify the radiative profile in the tropics and midlatitudes. An accurate representation of MCSs’ rainfall is therefore crucial in understanding their impact on the climate system. The V06B Integrated Multisatellite Retrievals from Global Precipitation Measurement (IMERG) half-hourly precipitation final product is a useful tool to study the precipitation characteristics of MCSs because of its global coverage and fine spatiotemporal resolutions. However, errors and uncertainties in IMERG should be quantified before applying it to hydrology and climate applications. This study evaluates IMERG performance on capturing and detecting MCSs’ precipitation in the central and eastern United States during a 3-yr study period against the radar-based Stage IV product. The tracked MCSs are divided into four seasons and are analyzed separately for both datasets. IMERG shows a wet bias in total precipitation but a dry bias in hourly mean precipitation during all seasons due to the false classification of nonprecipitating pixels as precipitating. These false alarm events are possibly caused by evaporation under the cloud base or the misrepresentation of MCS cold anvil regions as precipitating clouds by the algorithm. IMERG agrees reasonably well with Stage IV in terms of the seasonal spatial distribution and diurnal cycle of MCSs precipitation. A relative humidity (RH)-based correction has been applied to the IMERG precipitation product, which helps reduce the number of false alarm pixels and improves the overall performance of IMERG with respect to Stage IV.},

  doi          = {10.1175/JHM-D-19-0123.1},

  journal      = {Journal of Hydrometeorology},

  number       = 1,

  volume       = 21,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020},

  month        = {Wed Jan 01 00:00:00 EST 2020}

}

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