Beam-filling effect correction with subpixel cloud fraction using a neural network

In this study, the effects of cloud inhomogeneity on microwave rain rate retrievals are investigated. A single-channel (85 GHz) empirically based algorithm using a neural network approach is presented. The objective is to correct the beam-filling error (BFE), that might occur because of the inherent variability within coarse microwave pixels, with subpixel information. To this aim, we used the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission passive microwave, thermal infrared and radar data. The integration of spatial information into the retrieval algorithm enables us to partially overcome the BFE. We use two parameters which characterize the horizontal cloud inhomogeneity within the microwave radiometer field of view, and we add them to simulated brightness temperatures as inputs of the neural network algorithm. The first one is the cloud fraction derived from infrared measurement, and the second corresponds to the fraction of the rainy area derived from radar measurements. The output rain rates were validated using the Precipitation Radar data. It was found that adding cloud fraction of microwave pixels, can lead to more accurate retrievals. Instantaneous precipitation estimates demonstrated correlations of ∼0.6-0.7 and ∼0.7-0.8 with radar-derived rain rates, for ocean and land retrievals respectively. In spite of the problem inherent in deriving the cloud (or rain) fraction, the initial validation results presented in this study are reasonably encouraging and show the advantage of utilizing the information from different sensors in order to optimize the retrieval of rainfall.