A new independent GLOBAL rainfall product from ASCAT soil moisture observations through SM2RAIN (GLOBAL SM2RAIN)

Background

Accurate rainfall estimates are of paramount importance as rainfall plays a key-role in many fields as, to cite a few, natural hazard assessment (floods and landslides), drought management, weather forecasting, agriculture and diseases prevention. State-of-the-art rainfall products obtained by satellites are often the only way for measuring rainfall in remote areas of the world.

Purpose

The main objectives of GLOBAL-SM2RAIN project are to generate a new global scale and high resolution satellite rainfall product obtained by ASCAT and to prepare for a potential operational implementation in the EUMETSAT H SAF framework, complementing the currently planned H SAF SM2RAIN activities but on a global scale. The expectation is that this product will improve the accuracy over land with respect to state-of-the-art satellite products and the performance of operational tools for flood, drought and landslide hazard assessment and mitigation.

Methods

The estimation of rainfall is based on the application of the SM2RAIN algorithm. SM2RAIN is based on the inversion of the soil water balance analytical equation and allows to directly estimate rainfall from ASCAT soil moisture observations.