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After the launch of the first indigenous navigation satellite, IRNSS, by India, the precipitation water (PW) has caught the attention of researchers as it poses limitations to the position estimates provided by the navigation satellites, by incorporating delay to the satellite signal. Moreover, knowledge of the upper air meteorological element, like the precipitation water (PW) is essential in understanding cloud microphysics and rainfall dynamics. In this paper the authors have made an attempt to study the PW, along with the cloud liquid water (CLW), and the latent heat (LH) over Salem, a southern suburb in India. The aim of this paper is to estimate precipitation water (PW) from the knowledge of rainfall. Correlations of surface rainfall with these elements have been established. The correlations of the CLW/PW/LH have also been investigated under convective rainfall. The CLW, PW and LH values at 14 levels of the atmosphere, from the Earth’s surface up to a height of 18 km above; and the rainfall values have been obtained from the data product 2A12 of the microwave imager (TMI) onboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM). The surface rainfall and the convective rainfall are found to bear significant correlations with these elements. Thus, it appears that it is possible to estimate these elements from the knowledge of surface rainfall. The findings of this paper will be helpful in validating the IRNSS-retrieved precipitation water. The paper also investigates the influence of sunspot number (SSN) and Total Solar Irradiance (TSI) on rainfall over Salem. The SSN/ TSI data have been obtained from the Solar Influences Data Analysis Centre (SIDC), Royal Observatory of Belgium, and the rainfall data have been obtained from the India Meteorological Department (IMD).
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