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Shipboard radar-derived rain rates and satellite-observed IR brightness temperatures have been used to examine the relationship between cold cloud fractional coverage for brightness temperatures 235 K and areally averaged surface rainfall during the Tropical Ocean-Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). A nearly linear relationship was observed with a ratio of mean rain rate to fraction cold cloud coverage of approximately 1 mm h 1 . This is in contrast to the GOES precipitation index (GPI) methodology, which assumes a proportionality (GPI slope coefficient) of 3 mm h 1 .
Saxen et al. (2000) studied this question.