Advancing Global Precipitation Data Products: Recommendations from the International Precipitation Working Group

Recognizing the future needs for global precipitation data products, the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS) and the World Meteorological Organization (WMO) formed the International Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) in 2000 (Turk and Bauer 2006; Kidd et al. 2010; Huffman and Klepp 2011; Kucera and Lapeta 2014). IPWG joined other CGMS science working groups, with user workshops hosted every other year, with discussion centered in working groups and focus groups (Table 1). IPWG provides a forum for operational and research users of satellite precipitation measurements to exchange information on methods for inferring space-borne precipitation, and to assess their impact in numerical weather and hydrometeorological prediction and climate studies. Since its inception, the IPWG membership has expanded rapidly to its present ~500 members.This 11th Workshop of the IPWG was hosted by the Earth Observation Research Center of the Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (EORC/JAXA), whose overall objectives were threefold: (1) To review the state of the art of rainfall and snowfall, high-latitude precipitation measurement techniques and discuss remaining challenges, (2) to discuss the application of satellite precipitation products for research and operations, and (3) to recommend future directions to WMO, CGMS, the Global Energy and Water Exchange (GEWEX) program, and to the Committee on Earth Observations (CEOS). Selected topics from each session are summarized, and key recommendations related to these three objectives.