Assessment of the Benefits of Extending the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission A Perspective from the Research and Operations Communities: Interim Report (2006) / Chapter Skim
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Executive Summary
Executive Summary
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Although initially intended as a purely researchoriented mission, TRMM now is used in operational applications such as hurricane forecasting because data from its suite of complementary sensors are unique and available in near real time. In the United States TRMM data are used operationally by the Joint Typhoon Warning Center, the National Center for Environmental Prediction, and the National Hurricane Center, among others.
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THE ROLE OF THE NATIONAL ACADEMIES In August 2004 NASA Administrator Sean O'Keefe requested that the National Academies provide advice on the anticipated scientific and operational contributions from extending TRMM beyond 2004. The charge to the Committee on the Future of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission in the first phase of its work was to conduct a workshop and prepare an interim report to be delivered in December 2004 on how best to use the remaining TRMM spacecraft life.
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climate and weather research (e.g., a reliable seven-year climatolo gy of the mean annual tropical rainfall and its interannual and diurnal cy cles; fundamental new information on the synoptic climatology of tropical weather systems, e.g., the first detailed precipitation and latent heating pro files throughout the tropics and subtropics, first detailed convective and stratiform rainfall structure, and a description from space of the fine-scale structure of rainfall systems that can only be determined from the PR data; understanding of how sea surface temperature patterns modify precipitation through air-sea interaction; quantitative documentation of precipitation pat terns; mapping sea surface temperature through clouds for improved climate 3The TRMM Microwave Imager also can gauge convective intensity, but the PR and LIS data are principally used.
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; and 2. applied research (e.g., a wealth of climatological and diagnostic information on tropical rainfall; insight on the physical processes of precip itation formation; unique, fine-scale information on hurricane and typhoon structure linked to rapid intensification; calibration of a long-term satellite precipitation dataset and multisatellite three-hour analyses; experimental tropical cyclone forecast methods; enhanced sea surface temperature now casting applications using TMI data; integration of TRMM data into fore cast model initialization procedures; enhanced understanding of tropical cy clone inner eyewall dynamics and tropical cyclone intensity)
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CONCLUSIONS · The material in this National Research Council report provides science and operations information needed as input for a qualitative evaluation of the balance between the risk inherent with an uncontrolled reentry and the contribution through operations and research to the protection of life and property of an extension of the TRMM mission. Extension of the mission to at least late 2005 will provide time for further examination of the relevant issues.
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Specifi cally, the PR, the passive microwave imager, and the visible and infrared instruments provide a powerful overlap of precipitation, cloud, and water vapor measurements and the LIS helps isolate intense convective cells. The TMI permits sea surface temperature measurement through clouds at high spatial resolution.
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· Longer TRMM record needed for climate research* · Foster improving moist physics parameterization for climate models, numerical weather prediction, and related assimilation systems by evaluating models of clouds and precipitation physics*
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For example, over the first six years of TRMM data, the TMI instrument passes within 750 km of storm centers during one of every eight orbits, whereas PR observes within 250 km of the center during one of every 25 orbits. The narrow swath of the PR and the rare occurrence and great variability of tropical cyclone struc ture, intensity, and precipitation amount strongly argues for mission exten sion to increase sample sizes for statistical analyses.
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RECOMMENDATION The committee strongly recommends continued operation of TRMM, at least until such time as a decision on controlled reentry becomes unavoidable. The additional year can be used to more fully weigh the benefits, costs, and risks.
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