CMORPH: A morphing approach for high resolution precipitation product generation

Abstract

The CMORPH technique was developed to synergize the most desirable aspects of passive microwave (high quality) and infrared (spatial and temporal resolution) data. CMORPH is a global (in longitude; 60°N-60°S) high-resolution (∼0.10° latitude/longitude, 1/2-hourly) precipitation analysis technique that uses motion vectors derived from half-hourly geostationary satellite IR imagery to propagate precipitation estimates derived from passive microwave data. Multi-hour precipitation totals derived via the CMORPH methodology are an improvement over both simple averaging of all available microwave-derived precipitation estimates and over other merging techniques that blend microwave and infrared information but which derive estimates of precipitation directly from infrared data when passive microwave data are not available. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media B.V.