Toward characterizing the spatio-temporal variability in global precipitation measurements

by Dr. Mekonnen Gebremichael
Postdoctoral Research Associate, Earth & Environmental Science
New Mexico Tech

ABSTRACT
Accurate description of the space-time variability of precipitation is important in a number of applications. This is however a challenging task because of the strong nonlinear variability of precipitation. Recent studies presented evidence of scale-invariance in spatial, temporal and space-time precipitation measurements derived from limited ground-based radar data. If this result is universally valid, it allows characterization of global precipitation variability in terms of quite a few (2 to 3) parameters. Using 3 years (1998–2000) of TRMM-PR (Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission – Precipitation Radar) data, we investigated the scale-invariance property of spatial precipitation across the entire tropics. Moreover, we investigated the link between the scale-invariance parameters and the dynamics of physical processes. This talk focuses on the results obtained, and the challenges that lie ahead.