Editorial Precipitation Science: Observations, Retrievals...
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Editorial Precipitation Science: Observations, Retrievals, and Modeling Francisco J. Tapiador, 1 Sahra Kacimi, 2 Manuel de Castro, 1 Vincenzo Levizzani, 3 Dimitrios Katsanos, 4 and Eduardo García-Ortega 5 1 Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales (ICAM), 45071 Toledo, Spain 2 Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA 3 CNR-ISAC, 40129 Bologna, Italy 4 Athens National Observatory, P.O. Box 20048, 11810 Athens, Greece 5 Atmospheric Physics Group, University of Le´ on, 24071 Le´ on, Spain Correspondence should be addressed to Francisco J. Tapiador; [email protected] Received 19 March 2015; Accepted 19 March 2015 Copyright © 2015 Francisco J. Tapiador et al. is is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. Precipitation science is becoming a thriving multidisciplinary area as a special interest topic for meteorology, climatology, hydrology, remote sensing, and computing science. is is not surprising since precipitation features a key component of many human activities, most notably agriculture and water resources management, making rain estimation and forecasting a relevant research topic for society and policy- makers. A better knowledge of precipitation processes is instrumental to respond to increasingly pressing societal needs and to provide better scientific tools for dealing with hydrological problems. is special issue gathers a number of contributions in precipitation science, including radar studies, artificial intel- ligence methods, modeling, geostatistical analyses, chemical research, satellite estimates, climate variability, data assim- ilation, computing science, solid precipitation studies, and microphysics. e synergisms between the many approaches are clear. us, for instance, surface precipitation is known to be a rough (i.e., not smooth) geophysical field and as such dif- ficult to model. at makes precipitation the prime yardstick to gauge model performance. erein, improvements in the precise quantification of rain using rain gauges, disdrometers, and satellites translate into better model tuning and at the end improved model validation. e collection illustrates well the observed bloom of the studies focused on the Asian weather and climate, where a precise understanding of precipitation processes is perhaps even more important than in other geographical areas as that part of the world accounts for more than half of the planet population. Moreover, knowledge of such an important atmospheric process as the Meiyu translates into increased ability to model and simulate mesoscale systems in other parts of the planet. It is therefore worthy to pay attention to observations and simulations in that area to advance the pre- cipitation science program: a program that could be defined as a multisource, multidisciplinary, and multinational effort to better understand precipitation physics in the context of increasing societal awareness of the consequences of ongoing global warming. Francisco J. Tapiador Sahra Kacimi Manuel de Castro Vincenzo Levizzani Dimitrios Katsanos Eduardo Garc´ ıa-Ortega Hindawi Publishing Corporation Advances in Meteorology Volume 2015, Article ID 843403, 1 page http://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/843403
Transcript of Editorial Precipitation Science: Observations, Retrievals...
EditorialPrecipitation Science: Observations, Retrievals, and Modeling
Francisco J. Tapiador,1 Sahra Kacimi,2 Manuel de Castro,1 Vincenzo Levizzani,3
Dimitrios Katsanos,4 and Eduardo García-Ortega5
1Universidad de Castilla-La Mancha (UCLM), Instituto de Ciencias Ambientales (ICAM), 45071 Toledo, Spain2Jet Propulsion Laboratory, California Institute of Technology, Pasadena, CA 91109-8099, USA3CNR-ISAC, 40129 Bologna, Italy4Athens National Observatory, P.O. Box 20048, 11810 Athens, Greece5Atmospheric Physics Group, University of Leon, 24071 Leon, Spain
Correspondence should be addressed to Francisco J. Tapiador; [email protected]
Received 19 March 2015; Accepted 19 March 2015
Copyright © 2015 Francisco J. Tapiador et al. This is an open access article distributed under the Creative Commons AttributionLicense, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properlycited.
Precipitation science is becoming a thrivingmultidisciplinaryarea as a special interest topic for meteorology, climatology,hydrology, remote sensing, and computing science. This isnot surprising since precipitation features a key componentof many human activities, most notably agriculture andwater resources management, making rain estimation andforecasting a relevant research topic for society and policy-makers. A better knowledge of precipitation processes isinstrumental to respond to increasingly pressing societalneeds and to provide better scientific tools for dealing withhydrological problems.
This special issue gathers a number of contributions inprecipitation science, including radar studies, artificial intel-ligence methods, modeling, geostatistical analyses, chemicalresearch, satellite estimates, climate variability, data assim-ilation, computing science, solid precipitation studies, andmicrophysics. The synergisms between the many approachesare clear.Thus, for instance, surface precipitation is known tobe a rough (i.e., not smooth) geophysical field and as such dif-ficult to model. That makes precipitation the prime yardstickto gauge model performance. Therein, improvements in theprecise quantification of rain using rain gauges, disdrometers,and satellites translate into bettermodel tuning and at the endimproved model validation.
The collection illustrates well the observed bloom of thestudies focused on the Asian weather and climate, where aprecise understanding of precipitation processes is perhapseven more important than in other geographical areas as that
part of the world accounts for more than half of the planetpopulation. Moreover, knowledge of such an importantatmospheric process as the Meiyu translates into increasedability to model and simulate mesoscale systems in otherparts of the planet. It is therefore worthy to pay attention toobservations and simulations in that area to advance the pre-cipitation science program: a program that could be definedas a multisource, multidisciplinary, and multinational effortto better understand precipitation physics in the context ofincreasing societal awareness of the consequences of ongoingglobal warming.
Francisco J. TapiadorSahra Kacimi
Manuel de CastroVincenzo LevizzaniDimitrios Katsanos
Eduardo Garcıa-Ortega
Hindawi Publishing CorporationAdvances in MeteorologyVolume 2015, Article ID 843403, 1 pagehttp://dx.doi.org/10.1155/2015/843403
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