Abstract
The fifth workshop of the International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) covered sessions for three working groups that include applications, research/new technology, and validation. One of the topics covered was the status and plans for the various operational and experimental precipitation products that are currently available or planned. The presentations covered new satellite systems, specifically the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, which is a joint US-Japan project that follows the highly successful Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM), another joint US-Japan project that has marked 14 yr of operation and features the first precipitation radar to fly in space. IPWG5 strongly supported the continued launch and exploitation of multichannel, dual-polarization, conically scanning passive microwave (PMW) imagers with resolutions of 5-10 km, given their significant technical advantages for retrieving finescale precipitation estimates. Another major topic at IPWG5 was the validation of the various precipitation estimates.
