The utility and shortcomings of near-real-time ocean surface vector wind retrievals from the NASA Quick Scatterometer (QuikSCAT) in operational forecast and analysis activities at the National Hurricane Center (NHC) are described. The use of QuikSCAT data in tropical cyclone (TC) analysis and forecasting for center location/identification, intensity (maximum sustained wind) estimation, and anal...

Gridded estimated rainfall intensity values at very high spatial and temporal resolution levels are needed as main inputs for weather prediction models to obtain accurate precipitation forecasts, and to verify the performance of precipitation forecast models. These gridded rainfall fields are also the main driver for hydrological models that forecast flash floods, and they are essential for dis...

The structure and function of chloroplast in plant leaves can be affected by acid rain and air pollution. The photosystem II in a plant is considered the primary site where light-induced delayed light emission (DLE) is produced. With the lamina of zijinghua (Bauhinia variegata L.) and soybean (Glycine max (L.) Merr.) as testing models, we studied the effects of artificial acid rain and SO2 on c...

Upon rewetting, lichens lose polyols through leaching. We quantified leaching losses for 21 species under simulated rainfall. Polyol concentrations in these lichens range from 1.0 to 8.8%, with a mean of 2.8%. Leaching losses range up to about 7.5 mg (polyol)/g (lichen dry weight) in a typical rain event. The rate of polyol leaching declines exponentially, becoming negligible within 1 hour of c...

Continuous observations from geostationary satellites can show the morphology of precipitation cloud systems in quasi-real-time, but there are still large deviations inversion precipitation. We used binary-connected area recognition technology to identify meso-?-scale rain clusters over Hainan Island 1 June 2000 31 December 2018, based on Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Integrated Multi-...

Electromagnetic wave propagation research in frequency band 58GHzwas started at TESTCOM in Praha due to lack of experimentally obtained results needed for a realistic calculation of quality and availability of point-to-point fixed systems. Rain attenuation data obtained from a path at 58GHz with V polarization located in Praha was processed over a 5-year period. Rainfall intensities have been m...