A Look at Amazon Basin Seasonal Dynamics with the Biophysical ...

REAL TIME SATELLITE RAINFALL ESTIMATION OVER THEAMAZON REGION FOR HYDROLOGICAL APPLICATIONSAbstractGilberto Vicente, Marcos H. CostaNASA/GSFCgvicente@pop900.gsfc.nasa.govThe main purpose of this research is the construction and maintenance of a systemto provide reliable rainfall information to the current hydrological models covering theAmazon region. The presentation is an overview of the development and implementationof an automated satellite rainfall estimation scheme for the Amazonia area to provide realtime rainfall rate free of cost to Internet users. The study is an extension of the automatedsatellite rainfall estimation technique (Auto-Estimator) developed for the USA at therequest of the NOAA National Weather Service (NWS). It provides real-time, highspatial (4 by 4 km) and temporal resolution (half-hour) rainfall estimates using a similarmulti-channel, multi-spectral methodology that has proved to be from 70% to 90%percent satisfactory over the US. The real time rainfall rate estimates are derived from theinfrared channel carried by the GOES-8 geosynchronous satellite plus model-derivedprecipitable water and relative humidity. This technique has consistently generatedrainfall estimates every half-hour over the whole South America region for over threeyears. It acknowledges the diurnal variation of precipitation and has better temporal andspatial coverage than the TRMM and DMSP(SSM/I) satellite estimates. The real timeestimates are available in GRADS format through the NOAA/NESDIS web sitehttp://orbit-net.nesdis.noaa.gov/arad/ht/ff/gilberto.html.