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G lobal quantitative precipitation estimates (QPEs) at higher spatial and temporal resolutions are critical for the development of applications that address a variety of scientific and societal needs. These applications range from short-term forecasting of landslides and f loods to long-term climate impact studies. Because much of Earth is covered by oceans and sparsely populated land regions, the only viable means for obtaining long-term global precipita- tion records is from satellite-based observations. Satellite precipitation products are derived from a variety of sensors located on geostationary (GEO) and low-Earth-orbiting (LEO) satellite systems. GEO satellite systems provide relatively frequent visible (VIS) and infrared (IR) cloud-top informa- tion, while LEO satellites include passive microwave (PMW) instruments. PMW observations provide relatively good estimates of precipitation because of the strong relationship of the retrieved signal from hydrometeors (rain and snow) within the cloud. These observations, combined with space- based radar observations from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation radar (PR), have provided the science community a nearly unbroken data record of spaceborne radar and PMW observations of tropical and subtropical precipitation systems for over 15 years (as of March 2013). In recent years, there has been significant development of multisensor techniques that combine information from the available satellite sensors to provide global precipitation products with uniform coverage at finer scales and with greater accuracy.
In an effort to improve global QPEs, the Inter- national Precipitation Working Group (IPWG) was initiated in 2001 as a permanent Working Group of the Coordination Group for Meteorological Satellites (CGMS). IPWG provides a forum for experts in precipitation research to improve the scientific understanding of precipitation observa- tions, leading to the development of improved precipitation estimates. Since its inception over 12 years ago, IPWG has pursued its goals by holding biennial workshops, organizing specialty workshops, and pursuing long-term cooperative projects among participants (currently over 280 members from 39 countries). The sixth workshop of IPWG (IPWG6) is the latest in a series of biennial workshops that builds upon the recommendations of the fifth workshop (IPWG5) held in Hamburg, Germany, in October 2010 (Huffman and Klepp 2011). IPWG6 was organized over four days and included a combination of 65 oral and poster sessions that focused on inter- national projects and satellite programs, climatology of precipitation, precipitation...