Abstract:
The Global Precipitation Measurement Ground Validation Experiment is the ground-based component of the GPM mission which also includes satellite data. The GPM mission is to study global rain, snow and ice to better understand our climate, weather, and hydrometeorological processes. The ground instruments include disdrometers and rain gauges. The satellite data will extend TRMM's observations of
... precipitation to higher latitudes with more frequent sampling. GPM will be capable of measuring rain rates as small as a hundredth of an inch per hour to as large as 4 inches an hour. GPM will be able to estimate the various sizes of precipitation particles, and will also discriminate between snow and rain. GPM will seek to achieve these measurements with a 3-hour average revisit time over 80% of the globe, and the data will be available to users within 3 hours of observation time.
The Light Precipitation Evaluation Experiment (LPVEx)took place in September and October 2010 in the Gulf of Finland to characterize the ability of CloudSat, the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR), and existing/planned passive microwave (PMW) sensors such as the GPM microwave imager (GMI) to detect light rain and evaluate their estimates of rainfall intensity in high latitude, shallow freezing level environments. The experiment leveraged in situ microphysical property measurements, coordinated remote sensing observations, and cloud resolving model simulations of high latitude precipitation systems to conduct a comprehensive evaluation of precipitation algorithms for current and future satellite platforms. The campaign will use these measurements to better understand the process of light rainfall formation at high latitudes and augment the currently limited database of light rainfall microphysical properties that form the critical assumptions at the root of satellite retrieval algorithm.
This dataset provides rainfall data for the Global Precipitation Measurement
(GPM) Misson Ground Validation Experiment collected at four sites in Finland: Harmaja, Emasalo, and Jarvenpaa, and the Gulf of Finland(Aranda) during the Light Precipitation Validation Experiment September-October 2010.
The Two-dimensional Video Disdrometer (2DVD) uses two high speed line scan cameras which provide continuous measurements of size distribution, shape and fall velocities of all precipitation particles and types. This 2DVD is the third generation 2D video disdrometer designed by Joanneum Research of Graz, Austria. 
