The retrieval of MTSAT multi-spectral satellite image rainfall intensity field was studied, with which the "Unit-Feature Spatial Classification (UFSC) method" was proposed to become the foremost basis of the possibility of continuous observation of real-time precipitation from geostationary satellite. In this method, MTSAT multi-spectral satellite measured value and measured precipitation rate from high density ground stations of plum rain season in east china (Jiangsu Province, Zhejiang Province and Anhui Province) in 2007 are combined to conduct the cooperative analysis, and therefore the distribution features of the level of each precipitation probability and each precipitation intensity are well established on different two-dimensional and three-dimensional spectral feature spaces. On the basis, the discrimination matrices, correspondingly, are established for precipitation probability and precipitation intensity of different spectral combinations. Different spectral combinations are used for the construction of the discrimination matrices of the day and the night, respectively. For the day, IR1 (11µm), IR3 (6.7μm), VIS (0.7m), IR12 (T_IR2-IR1) and IR13 (T_IR3-IR1) are available, among which IR1, VIS and IR3 (or IR13) are mainly used ; for the night, IR1, IR3, IR4 (3.7μm), IR12, IR13, IR14 (T_IR4-IR1)and IR24 (T_IR4-IR2) are available and IR1, IR3 and IR24 (or IR14) are mainly used. The contrast test between the observed data of precipitation and the retrieval results based on precipitation data from basic stations and reference stations in China in 2007 shows that, 30% precipitation probability can ideally distinguish precipitation area from non-precipitation area; and the analysis of precipitation intensity category also matches well with the fact. It is well known that the observation of satellite is instantaneous one time per hour while the rain gauge observation is an accumulative process during an hour. The error study further suggests that the difference between the two observation methods is the vital cause of the relative error.

Date Published: 11 December 2008
PDF: 12 pages
Proc. SPIE 7149, Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Remote Sensing Technology, Techniques, and Applications II, 714918 (11 December 2008); doi: 10.1117/12.804842

Published in SPIE Proceedings Vol. 7149:
Multispectral, Hyperspectral, and Ultraspectral Remote Sensing Technology, Techniques, and Applications II
Allen M. Larar; Mervyn J. Lynch; Makoto Suzuki, Editor(s)