International Archives of the Photogrammetry, Remote Sensing and Spatial Information Sciences, Vol XXXV, Part B7. Istanbul 2004 
The relationships between rainfall rate and brightness 
temperature and or frequency of lightning are derived starting 
from the Probability Matching Method (PMM). In this method, 
the distribution of cumulative probability of each distribution is 
made calculations (rainfall rate, brightness temperature and 
frequency of lightning), and it is assumed that the two 
distributions are correlated by the same interval of probability. 
In other words, suppose that two distributions X and Y exist, as 
described in the figures 3 and 4. Supposes that the variable Xj, 
represents the value of the distribution X with a cumulative 
probability of 50%, Ys, represents the value of the distribution 
Y with a cumulative probability of 50%, and therefore it links 
the variable X50 with Ys, and so on. In the calculated 
relationships, it is assumed although the hottest temperature is 
associated with rainfall rate same 0 and the coldest temperature 
is associated with the rainfall rate more intense, this way it is 
guaranteed that the Hottest areas have smaller precipitation and 
the coldest possess the most intense precipitation. 
This way, the distributions of cumulative probability of 
temperature, rainfall rate and frequency of lightning are 
calculated for the different classes, or be: Tmode, land, ocean, 
with LTG or NLTG, convective and stratiform. 
In the figures 7 and 8 the relationships of rainfall rate are 
presented in function of the temperature for clouds with 
lightning on the land and ocean respectively. 
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
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Figure 7. Rainfall rate curves for clouds with lightning over 
land. (blue) — convective rainfall rate for pixels lightning free; 
(green) — convective rainfall rate for pixels lightning; (red) 
stratiform rainfall rate. 
It is noticed that the rainfall rate are more intense on the land 
for the coldest areas of the cloud, while on the ocean it 
concentrates on hotter areas. In fact, the marine clouds 
1260 
concentrate more content of liquid water in the first kilometres 
of the cloud, soon developing larger drops than implicate in 
precipitation. Already the land clouds due to great amount of 
aerosols need a larger vertical development for the drops to win 
mass and precipitate like this. Therefore, this vertical 
development implicates in a larger amount of mass, because it 
increases the volume. Finally these results allow obtain the 
different properties among the land and oceanic clouds. 
Figure 8. Rainfall rate curves for clouds with lightning over 
  
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Tmode(Ocean) <220 220 < Tmode(Ocean} < 240 
  
   
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ocean. (blue) — convective rainfall rate for pixels lightning free; 
(green) — convective rainfall rate for pixels lightning; (red) 
stratiform rainfall rate. 
3. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION 
3.1. Instantaneous Rainfall Rate 
A figure 9 shows simultaneously the infrared GOES image with 
lightning data represented by white cross (top figure), rain 
fraction for convective (red — middle figure) and stratiform 
(blue — middle figure) and instantaneous rainfall rate (button 
figure) at 16:39 UTC and 20:09 UTC on 13 of January of 2000. 
The methodology shows a quite good performance to capture 
active rainy convective areas. 
Figure 9 presents a good example of very intense convective 
system including a significant number of lightning (or 
atmospheric discharges). 
  
16:39 UTC on 13 January of 2000 (a) 20:09 UTC on 13 January of 2000 
(hà