# Evaluation of drain, a deep-learning approach to rain retrieval from gpm passive microwave radiometer

arXiv: https://arxiv.org/abs/2303.01220 · HTML: https://mlsanity.com/paper/2303.01220/

## Key facts

- Cited by 2 papers in the map (data through 14 Oct 2026).
- Builds on 2 of its 25 references that are in the map.
- First posted on arXiv 2 Mar 2023.

## Builds on (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [Adam: A Method for Stochastic Optimization](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1412.6980/) (2014)
- [U-Net: Convolutional Networks for Biomedical Image Segmentation](https://mlsanity.com/paper/1505.04597/) (2015)

## Built on by (most cited first, 2 of 2)

- [MotifGen: Spatiotemporal interpolation of misaligned satellite images via multi-source generative modeling, in an application to tropical cyclones](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2606.24263/) (2026)
- [Unsupervised Domain Adaptation for Enhanced Radiometer Image Precipitation Estimation using Conditional Flow Matching](https://mlsanity.com/paper/2610.01890/) (2026)

## Abstract (arXiv)

Retrieval of rain from Passive Microwave radiometers data has been a challenge ever since the launch of the first Defense Meteorological Satellite Program in the late 70s. Enormous progress has been made since the launch of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) in 1997 but until recently the data were processed pixel-by-pixel or taking a few neighboring pixels into account. Deep learning has obtained remarkable improvement in the computer vision field, and offers a whole new way to tackle the rain retrieval problem. The Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Core satellite carries similarly to TRMM, a passive microwave radiometer and a radar that share part of their swath. The brightness temperatures measured in the 37 and 89 GHz channels are used like the RGB components of a regular image while rain rate from Dual Frequency radar provides the surface rain. A U-net is then trained on these data to develop a retrieval algorithm: Deep-learning RAIN (DRAIN). With only four brightness temperatures as an input and no other a priori information, DRAIN is offering similar or slightly better performances than GPROF, the GPM official algorithm, in most situations. These performances are assumed to be due to the fact that DRAIN works on an image basis instead of the classical pixel-by-pixel basis.