Improvements to the GOES-R Rainfall Rate Algorithm

The National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA) Geostationary Operational Environmental Satellite series R (GOES-R) will greatly expand the ability to observe the earth from geostationary orbit compared to the current-generation GOES, with more than 3 times as many spectral bands and a 75% reduction in footprint size. These enhanced capabilities are beneficial to rainfall rate estimation since they provide sensitivity to cloud-top properties such as phase and particle size that cannot be achieved using the limited channel selection of current GOES. The GOES-R rainfall rate algorithm, which is an infrared-based algorithm calibrated in real time against passive microwave rain rates, has been previously described in an algorithm theoretical basis document (ATBD); this paper describes modifications since the release of the ATBD, including a correction for evaporation of precipitation in dry regions and improved calibration updates. These improvements have been evaluated using a simplified version applicable to current-generation GOES to take advantage of the high-resolution ground validation data routinely available over the conterminous United States. Correcting for subcloud evaporation using relative humidity from a numerical model reduced false alarm rainfall by half and reduced the overall error by 35% for hourly accumulations validated against the National Centers for Environmental Prediction stage IV radar–gauge field; however, the number of missed events did increase slightly. Reducing the size of the calibration regions and increasing the training data requirements improved the consistency of the retrieved rates in time and space and reduced the overall error by an additional 4%.