1. REAL TIME SATELLITE RAINFALL ESTIMATION OVER THE AMAZON REGION FOR
II International LBA Scientific Conference
REAL TIME SATELLITE RAINFALL ESTIMATION OVER THE
AMAZON REGION FOR
HYDROLOGICAL APPLICATIONS
Gilberto A. Vicente
Marcos H. Costa
Daniel Vila
Goddard Space Flight Center & Federal University of Vicosa – UFV
NOAA – National Environmental Satellite, Data, and Information Service - NESDIS

2. Rainfall estimation Temporal resolution Spatial resolution Methods
Hourly
Daily
Weekly
Monthly
Seasonally
Yearly
Spatial
resolution
4 km
¼ degree
½ degree
1 degree
2.5 degrees
Methods
Rain gauges
Radar
Satellites
Models

3. Satellite rainfall estimation
DIRECT INDIRECT
Radar – Low resolution
PR (TRMM) – “twice daily”
MW Radiometer - Low resolution
SSMI (DMSP) – twice daily
TMI (TRMM) – twice daily
IR-Vis Sensor - High resolution
11 mm channel GOES-8 – every ½ hour

4. Project earlier objectives
Provide continous real time satellite rainfall estimation over Amazonia
1-hour average every hour
3-hour, 6-hour totals every hour
24-hour accumulation once a day
Resolution: 4 Km by 4 Km
Ease and free products access to users

5. Autoestimator (Hydro-estimator)
Extension of the NOAA/NESDIS AutoEstimator Rainfall Estimation to South America
Autoestimator (Hydro-estimator)
Operational Algorithm
for Flash Flood Applications
Time frame: 0 to 6 hours
How much ???
Where ???

6. Autoestimator description
Cloud top temperature
Cloud top growth rate
Cloud top temperature gradient
Precipitable water
Relative Humidity
Wind speed and direction
Orographic correction

7. Precipitable Water Relative Humidity
Independent building block concept
VISIBLE
Precipitable Water Relative Humidity
Ground Info.
Growth
rate
Temperature
gradient
Rain F (IR)
Parallax correction
Wind vector & Orograph
Manual adjustments

8. Example of the technique application over the US
SATELLITE PRECIPITATION ESTIMATES..DATE/TIME 9/1/ Z HEADLINE...FF POTENTIAL HAS SHIFTED TO WESTERN ARIZONA FOR THE NEXT 1-3HRS. AUTOMATIC ESTIMATES Z W ARIZONA COUNTIES... NORTHERN LAPAZ " SOUTHERN MOHAVE "
REMARKS...ISOLATED CELL MOVING ACROSS SOUTHERN MOHAVE WITH AUTO ESTIMATES AS MUCH AS 1.8"/HR. EXPECT CELL TO CONTINUE TO THE EAST NORTHEAST FOR THE NEXT FEW HOURS. AUTOESTIMATES LOOK REASOSABLE. WILL CONTINUE TO MONITOR.

9. Auto-Estimator application for flash flood: HURRICANE MITCH

10. Rainfall products available in real-time

11. ftp://orbit35i.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/arad/ht/gilberto/BSL/
Easy data distribution in GRADS format
Available every hour for a day
1-hour
3-hour
6-hour
Available once a day and archived since 1999
24-hour
ftp://orbit35i.nesdis.noaa.gov/pub/arad/ht/gilberto/BSL/

12. Centro de Predicción Numérica del Tiempo y Clima - Perú

13. User example
Date: Tue, 20 Apr :00:
From: "Ricardo d´Orsi"
Subject: flash flood no Rio de Janeiro
“ Com o sucesso da operacao do Alerta Rio (inaugurado no final do ano de 1996), fomos solicitados a emitir alertas de inundacoes (flash floods), … Dentre os diversos web-sites com informacoes meteorologicas utilizadas pela nossa equipe, o site
tem sido de grande ajuda para nos.”

14. User example
From: José Luís Moraes Ribeiro
Sent: Thursday, October 19, :45 AM
“Somos uma compania exportadora de café no interior do estado de São Paulo na cidade de Espirito Santo do Pinhal.Trabalhamos muito diretamente com o produtor e as estiagens do ano passado e a das ultimas duas semanas tem influenciado muito as cotaçoes mundias do produto. Com seu trabalho podemos ter as informaçoes precisas das regiões que recebem mais ou menos chuvas.”

15. User example - Case study: Argentina/Brazil
LONGITUD L A T I U D
Daniel A. Vila - Sistema de Alerta Hidrológico de la Cuenca del Plata
Instituto Nacional del Agua y del Ambiente (INA)

16. Rainfall satellite estimation for Salto Grande Dam region
Validation - Case study: Argentina/Brazil/Uruguay
Daniel A. Vila - Sistema de Alerta Hidrológico de la Cuenca del Plata Instituto Nacional del Agua y del Ambiente (INA)
Rainfall satellite estimation for Salto Grande Dam region
21-22 May 2001

17. Validation - Case study: Argentina/Brazil/Uruguay
Rainfall satellite estimation for Salto Grande Dam region May 2001
Rainfall satellite estimation for Salto Grande Dam region - 31 May / 1 June 2001

18. Validation - Case study: Argentina/Brazil/Uruguay
Estimated (mm)
Observed (mm)

19. Satellite data/products and globalization The Corporate Approach

20. TRMM Online Analyses http://daac.gsfc.nasa.gov/
NASA/GSFC – Distributed Active Archive Center

21. TRMM Accumulated Rainfall
Area Plot
Time Plot
TRMM Online data analyses

22. TRMM Rainfall Rate TRMM Online data analyses Area Plot Time Plot

23. Access to online Global precipitation analyses tools
GPCP Multisat Product
Global Precipitation Climatology Centre (GPCC)
Access to online Global precipitation analyses tools

24. GPCC/GPCP Multisat Product
Arcview
Various
Formats:
ASCII
ARCVIEW Grid
GIF
POSTCRIPT
PNG
ASCII

25. Data integration and interoperability
Give up ownership: Open source SW
System independence: JAVA
WEB based: Free data and SW distribution
GIS: Make rain estimation one more
layer of information
WEB – GIS based

26. GIS: A tool to connect Hydrology and Meteorology
Land use (polygon)
Soil Type (polygon)
Gage Station (point)
Stream (line)
Watershed (polygon)

27. Conclusion
Purpose: Create a system to provide continuous and reliable real-time satellite rainfall rate products to LBA users
Make the products quick and easily accessible through open source software
Provide users with information about other satellite rainfall rate products

28. Backup Slides

29. In progress Continue with data generation and delivery
Assist users in the search and use of other rainfall data products
Validation effort
Technique calibration
Parallax correction
Comparative study
Student orientation

30. COMPUTE SATELLITE RAINFALL RATE IN 1 X 1 DEGREE GRID
Auto-Estimator real-time adjustments with ground information
COMPUTE SATELLITE RAINFALL RATE IN 1 X 1 DEGREE GRID
ERROR < -10% ERROR = satellite - ground ERROR > +10%
T = T T = T + 1
-10% < ERROR < +10%
EXIT

31. GROWTH RATE and GRADIENT corrections
same
cloud top
temperature
GROWTH
RATE
and
GRADIENT
corrections
same
rainfall
rate
low PW1
low RH1
high PW2
high RH2
PW2 x RH2 > PW1 x RH1 h h1 h2

32. OROGRAPHIC CORRECTION
Rainfall Contrasts on windward and leeward slopes
OROGRAPHIC CORRECTION

33. Orographic correction: wind x height
Estimates with orographic correction
Estimates without orographic correction

34. Parallax correction Apparent Cloud Position Satellite Line-of-Sight
Actual Cloud
Position

35. PARALLAX
CORRECTION