Thethirdalgorithmintercomparisonproject(AIP-3)involvedrainestimatesfrommorethan50satelliterainfallalgorithmsandgroundradarmeasurementswithintheIntensiveFluxArray(IFA)overtheequatorialwesternPacificwarmpoolregionduringtheTropicalOceanGlobalAtmospherecoupledOcean-AtmosphereResponseExperiment(TOGACOARE).Earlyresultsindicatedthattherewasasystematicbiasbetweenrainratesfromsatellitepassivemicrowaveandgroundradarmeasurements.Themeanrainratefromradarmeasurementsisabout50%underestimatedcomparedtothatfrompassivemicrowave-basedretrievalalgorithms.ThispaperisdesignedtoanalyzerainpatternsfromtheFloridaStateUniversityrainretrievalalgorithmandradarmeasurementstounderstandphysicallytheraindiscrepancies.Resultsshowthatthereisaclearrange-dependentbiasassociatedwiththeradarmeasurements.However,thisrange-dependentsystematicalbiasisalmosteliminatedwiththecorrectedradarrainrates.Resultssuggestthattheeffectsfromradarattenuationcorrection,calibrationandbeamfillingarethemajorsourcesofraindiscrepancies.ThisstudydemonstratesthatrainretrievalsbasedonsatellitemeasurementsfrompassivemicrowaveradiometerssuchastheSpecialSensorofMicrowaveImager(SSM/I)arereliable,whilerainestimatesfromgroundradarmeasurementsarecorrectable.
