UNCERTAINTY ANALYSIS OF SATELLITE RAINFALL ALGORITHMS OVER THE TROPICAL PACIFIC

This paper describes the uncertainty analysis applied to comparisons b etween satellite monthly rainfall estimates and twenty 2.50 x 2.5 degr ees box rainfall estimates constructed from Pacific atoll-sited rain g auge sites. This work was done in conjunction with NASA's WETNET Preci pitation Intercomparison Project 3 (PIP 3), and was conducted by perso nnel at the Environmental Verification and Analysis Center (EVAC) at t he University of Oklahoma. Motivation for this work stemmed from the n eed to supply surface areal rainfall estimates of known accuracy for c omparison with satellite rainfall estimates and the need to use these estimates to quantify the uncertainty of the comparisons. This allowed for the discrimination of the value of various statistics associated with regression analysis, using different satellite algorithms, and fo r the quantification of the regression statistics computed by accounti ng for rain gauge uncertainty. To our knowledge this type of work has not been performed for previous satellite rainfall intercomparison pro grams.