Space-borne Synthetic Aperture Radar (SAR) imaging is often considered to possess both day/night and all weather operational capabilities. Whereas the first argument is true since we are dealing with an active sensor; the second does not hold in cases for which the operating frequencies are above ~ 3 GHz. Indeed, the SAR performance can be significantly affected by atmospheric effects (losses),...

The threat of flooding from landfalling tropical cyclones is a function of the local variation in rain rate and rain accumulation. To date, these have been inferred from single-frequency radar reflec-tivity measurements. However, the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission experience has confirmed that one of the main difficulties in retrieving rain profiles using a single-frequency radar is the un...

Flight in rain represents a greater challenge for smaller animals because the relative effects of water loading and drop impact are greater at reduced scales given the increased ratios of surface area to mass. Nevertheless, it is well known that small volant taxa such as hummingbirds can continue foraging even in extreme precipitation. Here, we evaluated the effect of four rain intensities (i.e...

Although various episodes of wet Quaternary climates have been suggested in studies of the Negev Desert, here we demonstrate that Reg soils, developed on flat alluvial surfaces and sensitive to minor changes in precipitation, indicate that the southern Negev has been permanently hyperarid at least since the middle Pleistocene. The wetter episodes were restricted to the northern Negev, currently...

It’s deceptively tricky to evaluate the quality of a prediction. For example, suppose a weather forecaster declares “30% chance of rain tomorrow,” and then it rains. Was the forecast bad, or did the forecaster just get unlucky? For example, one simplistic approach would be to call a prediction “good” if it puts more than 50% probability on the outcome that actually occurred, and “bad” otherwise...

In this paper the numerical comparative experiments on sensitivity of the physical dissipative technique to the precipitation parameterizations, especially the different combination of the explicit micro-physical schemes and cumulus convection parameterizations, in the PSU/NCAR mesoscale model MM5V3 with a triple-nested domain are conducted using the case of heavy rain occurring in the northern...

Precipitation is one important input variable for land surface hydrologic and ecological models. Next Generation Radar (NEXRAD) can provide precipitation products that cover most of the conterminous United States at high resolution (approximately 4 km 4 km). There are two major issues concerning the application of NEXRAD data: 1) the lack of a NEXRAD geo-processing and geo-referring program and...

The most significant precipitation events in California occur during the winter and are often related to synoptic-scale storms from the Pacific Ocean. Because of the terrain characteristics and the fact that the urban and infrastructural expansion is concentrated in lower elevation areas of the California Central Valley, a high risk of flooding is usually associated with these events. In the pr...

Accurate precipitation data at a high spatial resolution are essential for hydrological, meteorological, and ecological research at regional scales. This study presented a geostatistical downscaling-calibration procedure to derive the high spatial resolution maps of precipitation over a mountainous watershed affected by a monsoon climate. Based on the relationships between precipitation and oth...

A groundbreaking new-concept multiwavelength dual-polarized Advanced Microwave Radiometer for Rain Identification (ADMIRARI) has been built and continuously operated in two field campaigns: the Convective and Orographically Induced Precipitation Study (COPS) and the European Integrated Project on Aerosol Cloud Climate Air Quality Interactions (EUCAARI). The radiometer has 6 channels working in ...