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The impacts of hailstorms on human beings and structures and the associated high economic costs have raised significant interest in studying storm mechanisms and climatology, thus producing a substantial amount of literature in the field. To contribute to this effort, we have explored the hail frequency in the Mediterranean basin during the last two decades (1999–2021) on the basis of hail occurrences derived from the observations of the microwave radiometers on board satellites of the Global Precipitation Measurement Constellation (GPM-C) from 2014 (date of GPM Core Observatory launch) onwards and merging multiple other satellite platforms prior to 2014. According to the MWCC-H method, two hail event categories (hail and super hail) are identified, and their spatiotemporal distributions are evaluated to identify the hail development areas in the Mediterranean and the corresponding monthly climatology of hail occurrences. Our results show that the northern sectors of the domain (France, Alpine Region, Po Valley, and Central-Eastern Europe) tend to be hit by hailstorms from June to August, while the central sectors (from Spain to Turkey) are more affected as autumn approaches. The trend analysis shows that the mean number of hail events over the entire domain tends to substantially increase, showing a higher increment during 2010–2021 than during 1999–2010. This behavior was particularly enhanced over Southern Italy and the Balkans. Our findings point to the existence of "sub-hotspots", i.e., Mediterranean regions most susceptible to hail events and thus possibly more vulnerable to climate change effects. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The transition from the Advanced Very High Resolution Radiometer (AVHRR)/2 to AVHRR/3 on NOAA polar orbiters was associated with a switching from daylight operations of the 3.7- to 1.6-[micro]m wave band, while retaining 3.7 [micro]m for nighttime operations. Investigations of the daylight applicability of the two channels suggest that the 1.6-[micro]m wave band for daylight operations does not prove to be the better choice, at least for cloud applications. The 3.7-[micro]m wave band is much less affected by surface contamination, and measures more faithfully and unambiguously the particle effective radius near cloud tops. The 1.6-[micro]m radiation penetrates deeper into the cloud, supplying an integrated signal throughout the inner portions of the cloud, including surface contribution. Therefore, a synergetic use of the two wave bands can provide an improved retrieval of cloud microstructure and precipitation than from any of the channels alone. However, when one channel must be selected for the AVHRR/3, 3.7 [micro]m performs much better for these applications. Both wave bands identify equally well microphysical features in the anvils of severe storms. For other applications, such as detection of ice and snow over vegetated surfaces and desert dust aerosols, the 1.6-[micro]m wave band does not present clear advantages with respect to 3.7 [micro]m, except that it can be used directly as is, whereas the 3.7-[micro]m wave band has to be corrected for the thermal emission and water vapor absorption. Anyway, the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS) can be used instead for the applications to the relatively slowly changing surface properties, while prioritizing the AVHRR for the faster varying atmospheric applications. Finally, the 3.7-[micro]m wave band is more effective in detecting fog, fires, and hot spots. All these factors need to be considered by the operators of AVHRR/3 making a justifiable choice of the channels for the maximum benefit of the user community.

Extreme rainfall on the Island of Madeira on 20 February 2010 triggered flash floods and mudslides with 45 casualties, 8 missing people, and 100 injured. The NE-moving frontal system originating from a low-pressure center in the Madeira Archipelago is not unusual for the area, but its consequences on the island were rather extreme. The study dwells on passive microwave sounders from polar orbiters for the retrieval of rainfall intensity and cloud classification. Heavy rainfall was generated by severe local convection and enhanced over the central mountain chain. Physical cloud classification identifies the shallow convective precipitation type lasting for a few hours around noon and the observations confirm the numerical model results. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

Snowfall detection and measurement represent highly difficult problems in modern hydrometeorology. Ground measurements are complicated due to detection technology limitations, snow drift and accumulation issues, and error definition. The snowfall detection from space is in turn affected by all detection limitations that characterize the measurement of rainfall with the addition of several complications, such as the indirect character of remote sensing precipitation estimation, the presence of frozen or snow-covered terrain, and the unknown vertical distribution of hydrometeors in the cloud column. Several methods for the retrieval of snowfall intensity from satellite have been proposed in recent times using passive and active sensors. No satisfactory answer to the general problem of quantitative snowfall intensity determination has been found to date, but several studies contribute to delineate a working framework for the future operational retrieval algorithms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

During recent decades East Africa (EA) and Southern Africa (SA) have experienced an intensification of hydrological hazards, such as floods and droughts, which have dramatically affected the population, making these areas two of the regions of the African continent most vulnerable to these hazards. Thus, precipitation monitoring and the evaluation of its variability have become fundamentally important actions through the analysis of long-term data records. In particular, satellite-based precipitation products are often used because they counterbalance the sparsity of the rain gauge networks which often characterize these areas. The aim of this work is to compare and contrast the capabilities of three daily satellite-based products in EA and SA from 1983 to 2017. The selected products are two daily rainfall datasets based on high-resolution thermal infrared observations, TAMSAT version 3 and CHIRPS, and a relatively new global product, MSWEP version 2.2, which merges satellite-based, rain gauge and re-analysis precipitation data. The datasets have been directly intercompared, avoiding the traditional rain gauge validation. This is done by means of pairwise comparison statistics at 0.25° spatial resolution and daily time scale to assess rain–detection and quantitative estimate capabilities. Monthly climatology and spatial distribution of seasonality are analyzed as well. The time evolution of the statistical indexes has been evaluated in order to analyze the stability of the rain detection and estimation performances. Considerable agreement among the precipitation products emerged from the analysis, in spite of the differences occurring in specific situations over complex terrain, such as mountainous and coastal regions and deserts. Moreover, the temporal evolution of the statistical indices has demonstrated that the agreement between the products improved over time, with more stable capabilities in identifying precipitating days and estimating daily precipitation starting in the second half of the 1990s. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper describes the Passive microwave Neural network Precipitation Retrieval algorithm for climate applications (PNPR-CLIM), developed with funding from the Copernicus Climate Change Service (C3S), implemented by ECMWF on behalf of the European Union. The algorithm has been designed and developed to exploit the two cross-track scanning microwave radiometers, AMSU-B and MHS, towards the creation of a long-term (2000–2017) global precipitation climate data record (CDR) for the ECMWF Climate Data Store (CDS). The algorithm has been trained on an observational dataset built from one year of MHS and GPM-CO Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR) coincident observations. The dataset includes the Fundamental Climate Data Record (FCDR) of AMSU-B and MHS brightness temperatures, provided by the Fidelity and Uncertainty in Climate data records from Earth Observation (FIDUCEO) project, and the DPR-based surface precipitation rate estimates used as reference. The combined use of high quality, calibrated and harmonized long-term input data (provided by the FIDUCEO microwave brightness temperature Fundamental Climate Data Record) with the exploitation of the potential of neural networks (ability to learn and generalize) has made it possible to limit the use of ancillary model-derived environmental variables, thus reducing the model uncertainties' influence on the PNPR-CLIM, which could compromise the accuracy of the estimates. The PNPR-CLIM estimated precipitation distribution is in good agreement with independent DPR-based estimates. A multiscale assessment of the algorithm's performance is presented against high quality regional ground-based radar products and global precipitation datasets. The regional and global three-year (2015–2017) verification analysis shows that, despite the simplicity of the algorithm in terms of input variables and processing performance, the quality of PNPR-CLIM outperforms NASA GPROF in terms of rainfall detection, while in terms of rainfall quantification they are comparable. The global analysis evidences weaknesses at higher latitudes and in the winter at mid latitudes, mainly linked to the poorer quality of the precipitation retrieval in cold/dry conditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The water cycle is the most essential supporting physical mechanism ensuring the existence of life on Earth. Its components encompass the atmosphere, land, and oceans. The cycle is composed of evaporation, evapotranspiration, sublimation, water vapor transport, condensation, precipitation, runoff, infiltration and percolation, groundwater flow, and plant uptake. For a correct closure of the global water cycle, observations are needed of all these processes with a global perspective. In particular, precipitation requires continuous monitoring, as it is the most important component of the cycle, especially under changing climatic conditions. Passive and active sensors on board meteorological and environmental satellites now make reasonably complete data available that allow better measurements of precipitation to be made from space, in order to improve our understanding of the cycle's acceleration/deceleration under current and projected climate conditions. The article aims to draw an up-to-date picture of the current status of observations of precipitation from space, with an outlook to the near future of the satellite constellation, modeling applications, and water resource management. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Abstract: The Water vapor Strong Lines at 183GHz (183-WSL) algorithm is a method for the retrieval of rain rates and precipitation type classification (convective/stratiform). It exploits the water vapor absorption line observations centered at 183.31GHz of the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit module B (AMSU-B) and of the Microwave Humidity Sounder (MHS) flying on NOAA-15/-17 and NOAA-18-19/MetOp-A satellite series, respectively. The characteristics of this algorithm were described in Part I of this paper together with comparisons against analogous precipitation products. The focus of Part II is the analysis of the performance of the 183-WSL technique based on surface radar measurements. The “ground truth” dataset consists of 2years and 7months of rainfall intensity fields from the NIMROD radar network, which covers North-Western Europe. The investigation of the 183-WSL retrieval performance is based on a twofold approach: 1) the dichotomous statistic is used to evaluate the capabilities of the method to identify rain and no-rain clouds and 2) the accuracy statistic is applied to quantify the errors in the estimation of rain rates. The results reveal that the 183-WSL technique shows good skills in the detection of rain/no-rain areas and in the quantification of rain rate intensities. The categorical analysis shows annual values of the Probability Of Detection (POD), False Alarm Ratio (FAR) and Hanssen–Kuiper discriminant (HK) indices varying in the range 0.80–0.82, 0.33–0.36 and 0.39–0.46, respectively. The RMSE value is 2.8mmh−1 for the whole period despite an overestimation in the retrieved rain rates. Of note is the distribution of the 183-WSL monthly mean rain rate with respect to radar: the seasonal fluctuations of the average rainfalls measured by radar are reproduced by the 183-WSL. However, the retrieval method appears to suffer during winter seasonal conditions especially when the soil is partially frozen and the surface emissivity drastically changes. This is verified by the discrepancy distribution diagrams where the 183-WSL performs better during the warm months, while during the winter time the discrepancies with radar measurements tend to maximum values. The stable behavior of the 183-WSL algorithm is demonstrated over the whole study period by an overall overestimation for rain rate intensities less than 1mmh−1. This threshold is especially crucial in wintertime when the classification of low-intensity precipitation regimes is difficult. [Copyright &y& Elsevier]