Intrinsic uncertainty in the sub-daily satellite products at their native resolutions

Abstract

Level-3 “sub-daily global merged satellite precipitation products” are typically reported on a fixed rectangular latitude-longitude grid at high spatial and temporal resolution (respectively 0.1º and ~0.5 hour). This section is specifically concerned with the uncertainties in these products at their reported resolution. The discussion reviews the uncertainties that are inherent in the retrieval and processing steps that are used to produce the Level-3 estimates. These include the detection error, the passive microwave (MW) and infrared (IR) estimation errors, and the error incurred when using frequent IR information to fill long revisit gaps between passive MW estimates. Advantages and disadvantages of Level-3 products are also summarized.