Global Monthly Precipitation Estimates from Satellite-Observed Outgoing Longwave Radiation

作者：Pingping Xie, Phillip A. Arkin · 发表于：Journal of Climate · 年份：1998 · DOI：10.1175/1520-0442(1998)011<0137:gmpefs>2.0.co;2 · 被引用次数：264 · 研究领域：Atmospheric aerosols and clouds、Climate variability and models、Meteorological Phenomena and Simulations

The relationship between the flux of outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) estimated from satellite observations and precipitation is investigated using monthly OLR data from the NOAA polar-orbiting satellites and the merged analysis of precipitation of Xie and Arkin for the 8-yr period from July 1987 to June 1995. The mean annual cycle of OLR in the Tropics is dominated by changes in cloudiness and exhibits a strong negative correlation with precipitation, while in the extratropics the strongest influence on the annual cycle of OLR is surface temperature and a positive correlation with precipitation is found. However, the anomaly of OLR exhibits a negative correlation with precipitation over most of the globe. The regression coefficient relating the anomaly of precipitation to that of OLR is spatially inhomogeneous and seasonally dependent but can be expressed with high accuracy as a globally uniform linear function of the local mean precipitation. Based on these results, a new technique is developed to estimate monthly precipitation over the globe from OLR data. First, the mean annual cycle of precipitation is calculated from the merged analysis of precipitation for the 8-yr period. The precipitation anomaly is then estimated from the OLR anomaly field using the coefficient value appropriate for the mean annual cycle of precipitation at each location. Finally, the total precipitation is estimated as the sum of the mean annual cycle and the anomaly. Verification tests showed tha...