Global precipitation estimates from satellite: Using difference fields of outgoing long‐wave radiation

Global precipitation estimates using satellite data are derived using difference fields of outgoing long‐wave radiation (OLR). The difference fields consist of clear OLR minus cloudy OLR, which is a measure of long‐wave cloud radiative forcing at the top of the earth‐atmosphere system; and clear daytime OLR minus clear night‐time OLR, which is a measure of the diurnal variation of surface heating. All geophysical parameters used to compute OLR are derived from an analysis of the HIRS2/MSU sounding data. The derived global precipitation estimates show good agreement with collocated raingauge data over land. The correlation coefficient between the precipitation estimates derived using difference fields of OLR and raingauge data over land is about 0.65 for the FGGEyear. The correlation coefficient between precipitation estimates derived using difference fields of OLR and the GOES Precipitation Index (GPI) fraction is about 0.914 from 30°S to 30°N for July 1983, and between the precipitation estimates derived using difference fields of OLR and the difference field of atmospheric reflectance is about 0.86. Using one set of coefficients, global precipitation fields are derived for each 10‐day period and each month of the FGGE year (from December 1978 to November 1979). These fields contain rich information on seasonal variations.