12a.9 Characteristics of Amazonian Rain Measured during Trmm-lba

The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) is a NASA satellite project initiated to address a gap in our ability to accurately observe detailed rainfall patterns over the tropical continents and oceans. To support TRMM, several field campaigns were conducted. The TRMM-LBA (Large-scale Biosphere Atmosphere) experiment was conducted over the southwestern region of the Amazon (state of Rondônia, Brazil) in order to provide detailed information on the precipitation characteristics in the interior of a tropical continent. Information from TRMM-LBA will be used for validation of TRMM satellite products and for the initialization and validation of cloud-resolving models and passive microwave retrieval and ground validation algorithms. TRMM-LBA was conducted in parallel with the WETAMC-LBA campaign aimed at examining the effect of land use change on rainfall in Amazonia. During the TRMM-LBA field campaign, a variety of instrumentation was deployed during the wet season (January February 1999) to measure rainfall including a rain gauge network and S-band polarimetric (NCAR SPOL) radar. The focus of this study is on the statistical properties of Amazonian rainfall that have a direct bearing on the above goals.