Passive microwave remote sensing of rainfall with SSM/I: algorithm development and implementation

An algorithm from Special Sensor Microwave/Imager (SSM/I) to estimate precipitation is developed from radiative transfer calculations through an atmospheric cloud model. This algorithm captures both emission and scattering rainfall and operates over a variety of climatological conditions, and is found to accurately describe both localized instantaneous rainfall and global monthly rainfall over land and ocean. Comparisons between the SSM/I algorithm estimates and cloud model and precipitation radar show that the difference in instantaneous rainfall are less than the mean rain rate.