Subpixel fractional cloud cover and inhomogeneity effects on microwave beam-filling error

Using synthetic geometrical clouds and radiative microwave model, we examine the possibility to correct the estimations of liquid water path (LWP) or rain rate with cloud cover measurement. This information may be gotten by co-localized measurements of microwave and infrared/visible measurements on new satellites (TRMM, ADEOS 2, …). In a first step, the effects of fractional cloud cover on microwave brightness temperatures (TB) are investigated in three typical cases of nonprecipitating and precipitating (stratiform and convective) clouds. The beam-filling error (BFE) on brightness temperatures may be analyzed with the known spatial variability using 1D or 3D radiative transfer model. Relationships between BFE and subpixel cloud fraction (CF) are discussed according to the cloud type. We tested several parameters that characterize the horizontal cloud inhomogeneity within a radiometer field of view. BFE was found very sensitive to cloud type and inhomogeneity and is maximum for raining cloud with open spatial structure. In order to account for the uncertainty introduced by the spatial distribution, dependence of BFE on textural-based parameters is also discussed using homogeneity, entropy and an indicator of CF horizontal gradient.