Satellite rainfall monitoring: recent progress and remaining problems

Nearly three decades after the first attempts to use satellite imagery or derived cloud products fbr rainfall estimation much is known and understood concerning the scope and difficulties of satellite rainfall monitoring. After a brief general introduction this paper reviews recent progress in this field with special reference to improvement of algorithms, intercomparison projects, integrative use of data from different sources, increasing lengths of data records and derived products, and interpretability of rainfall results. It then considers some of the major problems requiring special attention, including the compatibility and convergence of results based on different data types, calibration of methods in conventional data sparse areas, continued access to input data, coping with ice in the environment, and creating a suitable geostationary passive microwave sensing system.