World's greatest rainfall intensities observed by satellites

This commentary emphasizes the role of remote sensing tools for detecting extreme values in precipitation. Here, we provide a synthesis of recent data from the Tropical Rainfall Measurement Mission satellite to detect the rainfall maxima depth versus duration across the terrestrial surface since 1998. Observations with rain gauges and satellite merged products suggest similarities in the power scaling law between maximum rainfall depth and duration. Satellites have shown the potential to identify regions of extreme precipitation and this is the first study where intensity‐duration curves from rainfall events measured by satellites are compared with the same curves obtained with traditional rain gauges.