Satellite rainfall estimates: new perspectives for meteorology and climate from the EURAINSAT project

Satellite meteorology is facing a crucial period of its history since recent missions have revealed instrumental for
quantitative rainfall measurements from space and newly conceived missions are at hand. International partnership
is rapidly developing and research projects keep the community focused on rapidly developing research and
operational issues. A perspective is given through the structure of EURAINSAT, a project of the 5th Framework
Programme of the European Commission. Its key objective is the development of algorithms for rapidly-updated
satellite rainfall estimations at the geostationary scale. The project is fostering international research on satellite
rainfall estimations building a bridge between Europe and the U.S. for present and future missions.