Comparison of precipitation estimates from microwave and infrared satellite imagery and meteorological radar for Sao Paulo State, Brazil

This study evaluates and compares the capacity to discriminate areas with c onvective rainfall for two meteorological events in Sao Paulo (SP) State, u sing simultaneously the 85.5 GHz Special Sensor Microwave Imager (SSM/I), t he GOES-8 satellite and the Bauru/SP meteorological S-band radar data. Spec ifically, three models are used: (a) the Convective Stratiform Technique (C ST) developed by Adler and Negri which uses infrared (IR) images; (b) the G oddard Scattering Algorithm (GSCAT) implemented by Adler et al, and Negri e t al,, for the SSM/I; and (c) precipitation rates obtained from the Bauru/S P meteorological radar data, Satellite images for two afternoons (24 and 26 January 1997) and the corresponding Bauru/SP radar data were used in this study. The results obtained from the CST technique and the GSCAT algorithm for the central area of SP State were compared with the radar data assumed to be t he ground truth. Both the GSCAT and CST algorithms have good skill to discr iminate areas with precipitation, The first one shows a better performance in identifying areas with high precipitation rates than the latter one, The results also show that correlation between GSCAT and radar precipitation r ates is better than when the CST is used.