research TRMM

Research at Laboratory of Satellite Meteorology - Research of Satellite Data - TRMM satellite

In this Laboratory of Satellite Meteorology, a study of the precipitation associated with atmospheric remotesencing and a study of varoius phenomena associated with remotesencing over the land are mainly done. We explain our meteorological and climatological study on the base of TRMM satellite data in this web page.

TRMM satellite : Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission(1997- )

TRMM satellite was launched from Tanega-shima in Japan on Nov. 28 th in 1997 (JST) by H2 rocket with collaboration of Japan/USA project (NASDA/CRL/NASA) to observe Tropical Rainfall which has not been well known.
"PR : Precipitation Radar" is equiped with this satellite at the first in the world in order to observe the precipitation directly from space.
Other instruments equiped with this satellite are TMI : TRMM Microwave Imager, VIRS : Visible Infrared Scanner, CERES : Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System and LIS : Lightning Imaging Sensor.

Characteristisc of each sensor
look

PR : 3 dimensional structure of the precipitation
　　　　　frequency：13.796 & 13.802 GHz
　　　　　horizontal resolution：4.3 km
　　　　　vertical resolution：250 m
　　　　　 sample image(Comparison between GPCP and PR cited from Matsubara Master thesis)
TMI : rainfall rate over the ocean
　　　　　frequency ： 10.7 & 19.4 & 21.3 & 37.0 & 85.5 GHz
　　　　　horizontal resolution ： 38.3 & 18.4 & 16.5 & 9.7 & 4.4 km
　　　　　 sample image(PR JJA averaged rainfall rate map compared with TMI map. These are used for Akimoto's oral presentation for the Second China-Japan Joint Workshop on Lower Atmosphere and Precipitation Study (LAPS).)
VIRS : cloud distribution
　　　　　band ： 0.63 & 1.6 & 3.75 & 10.8 & 12.0 μm
　　　　　horizontal resolution：2 km
　　　　　 sample image(2000yr MAM, JJA, SON cool cloud fraction with brightness temperature < 235 K cited from Matsubara Master thesis)
CERES : Earth radiative energy
　　　　　band ： 0.3～5 & 8～12 & 0.3～50μm
　　　　　horizontal resolution ： 25 km
　　　　　sample image(JAXA TRMM page)
LIS : distribution of lightning
　　　　　band ： 0.7774 μm
　　　　　horizontal resolution ： 4 km
　　　　　sample image(cited from Kondo's home page)

Please refer the JAXA/EORC Web page

Topics of our research

Diurnal variation of rainfall activity (local time with the maximum rainfall rate）
Characteristics of the precipitation over the island (Precipitation mainly over the oceanic continent）
Assessment of precipitation attenuation (by Mirror Image)
Estimation of rainfall rate with TRMM Microwave Imager TMI (Comparison with Precipitation Radar PR)
○ Estimation of rainfall rate by IR observation (limit of GPI)
Spatial and Seasonal Variation of Rain Profiles
Simulation of the next generation rader for the precipitation (bi-frequency radar)
↑
click buttons!

Let's join a mailing list for TRMM users!

This trmmusers-ML is managed by volunteers in this laboratory.
Let's join this ML and discuss about TRMM and researches!
Home page of this ML is here。
Nakamura lab. TRMM data stock