Searchlight: Precipitation Advection Tracking Using Multiplatform Low-Earth-Orbiting Satellite Data

This paper presents a new algorithm, Searchlight, capable of tracking precipitation advection through the complex spatiotemporal sampling pattern of multiplatform low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) passive and active microwave satellite data sets. The algorithm is based on the concept of “shining” a searchlight forward in time along proposed advection velocity vectors from a given LEO overpass. The searchlight “beam” links precipitation patterns in the current satellite overpass to corresponding patterns in multiple future overpasses. A global optimization determines an advection model by maximizing mutual information between linked precipitation measurements. The algorithm has been validated against surface radar over a region covering the Central and Eastern U.S.