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INTERNATIONAL
CONFERENCE HIGHLIGHTS A DELUGE OF TROPICAL RAINFALL SATELLITE RESULTS
NASA scientists and other researchers will present their findings on topics
such as the differences in lightning over islands and the oceans, the mapping
of soil moisture in the southern U.S., and the most comprehensive global database
of tropical rain events ever assembled at the International Tropical Rainfall
Measuring Mission (TRMM) Science Conference. The
TRMM conference will be held July 22-26, 2002 at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki in
Honolulu, Hawaii. The conference is sponsored by NASA and the National Space Development
Agency (NASDA) of Japan. TRMM
is a joint NASA/Japanese Space Agency mission to study tropical rainfall and its
implications for climate. Each day, the TRMM spacecraft observes the Earth's equatorial
and tropical regions, including the southernmost United States and all of Africa.
Papers
to be presented at the conference include: CLASSIFYING
ONE MILLION RAINSTORMS: “EVALUATION OF TRMM PRECIPITATION OVER LAND USING
THE PRECIPITATION FEATURE DATABASE” Probably
the most comprehensive global survey of tropical rain events ever undertaken,
this database uses TRMM to classify and group as many as one million rainstorms
over three years. This
classification aims to separate storms into those with similar structures, and
compare climatic forcings and environments in which they are formed, which should
greatly aid the regional accuracy of rainfall estimation. Speakers
for this presentation include: Stephen W. Nesbit and Edward J. Zipser, University
of Utah, and Christian D. Kummerow, Colorado State University. Tuesday,
July 23 at 8:50 a.m. (local time), Session 3.2 THE
DEPENDENCE OF LIGHTNING ACTIVITY IN ISLAND AREAS One
of the most striking results of the TRMM data set shows a large contrast between
lightning activity between land areas and ocean areas. Until now, researchers
have proposed two theories as to why there is more lightning over land areas.
Earle
Williams of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology used the Lightning Imaging
Sensor to create values for the number of lightning flashes per square kilometer
per year, the number of flashes per minute and when and where these flashes had
peak activity. The results were in favor of the traditional thermal hypothesis
for the land-ocean lightning contrast. Speakers
for this presentation include: Williams and Twiggy Chan, Massachusetts Institute
of Technology, and Dennis Boccippio, NASA Marshall Space Flight Center. Wednesday,
July 24 at 11:40 a.m. (local time), Session 5.6
RELATING
SOUTH AMERICAN RAINFALL TO ATLANTIC CIRCULATION THROUGH QUIKSCAT AND TRMM DATA
This
study finds that water vapor transported across the Atlantic coast of South America
varies closely with the precipitation over Brazil, as measured by TRMM’s
Precipitation Radar. The
decrease in Brazilian rainfall has been found to influence significantly the weather
in the United States and Western Europe during northern winters. Speakers
for this presentation include: W. Timothy Liu, Wenqing Tang, and Xiaosu Xie, NASA
Jet Propulsion Laboratory, and Rong Fu, Georgia Institute of Technology. Wednesday,
July 24 at 1:50 p.m. (local time), Session 6.2
MAPPING
SOIL MOISTURE OF THE SOUTHERN U.S.
There
is a critical need in land surface hydrology to understand the feedback in the
land surface and the atmosphere. Surface soil moisture may be one of the most
important variables required to develop this information. This is the first attempt
to map the daily soil moisture from space over and extended period of time. Speakers
for this presentation include: Thomas J. Jackson, USDA Agricultural Research Service,
Rajat Bindlish, SSAI, Eric Wood and Hulin Gao, Princeton University. Wednesday,
July 24 at 4:10 p.m. (local time), Session 6.5
OPERATIONAL
USE OF TRMM IMAGERY OVER TROPICAL CYCLONES AT THE JOINT TYPHOON WARNING CENTER,
PEARL HARBOR, HI
The
Joint Typhoon Warning Center (JTWC) Reconnaissance Program is using data from
the TRMM satellite to provide microwave imagery that sees through the higher dense
cirrus clouds, giving a higher confidence in the cyclone’s initial position
and movement, especially in the pre-eye stages of development. Speakers
for this presentation include: Roger T. Edson, Anteon Corporation, University
of Guam, Christopher E. Cantrell, JTWC, Pearl Harbor, and Jeffrey D. Hawkins,
Naval Research Laboratory. Thursday,
July 25 at 9:10 a.m. (local time), Session 7.3
THE
EFFECTS OF AMAZON DEFORESTATION ON CLIMATE
This
study proposes that heavily deforested regions will experience increased surface
heating, leading to atmospheric circulations that will ultimately enhance rainfall
or at least change daily rainfall patterns. Preliminary
results reveal that maximum rainfall fell in the most deforested areas, and heavily
forested areas received the least rainfall. Speakers
for this presentation include: Andrew J. Negri, Robert F. Adler, L. Xu, NASA Goddard
Space Flight Center, and Jason Surratt, North Carolina State University. Friday,
July 26 at 11:00 a.m. (local time), Session 9.7 Presentations
and posters will be given throughout the week, highlighting the uses of TRMM data.
Members of the news media interested in interviewing the TRMM scientists can contact
Jeffrey Halverson of NASA’s Goddard Space Flight Center by email at halverson@gilbert.gsfc.nasa.gov
or during the conference at the Hyatt Regency Waikiki in Honolulu, Hawaii at 808-923-1234. Back
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