BECAUSE OF THEIR LARGE SPATIAL EXTENT AND TENUOUS BUT PERSISTENT CLOUD COVER, MARINE SUBSIDENCE REGIONS ARE A CRITICAL MODULATOR OF THE GLOBAL WATER AND ENERGY BALANCE, YET REMAIN ONE OF THE MOST DIFFICULT REGIONS TO ADEQUATELY OBSERVE AND SIMULATE. THESE REGIONS APPEAR AS VIRTUAL DESERTS IN GLOBAL PRECIPITATION CLIMATOLOGIES SUCH AS THE GLOBAL PRECIPITATION CLIMATOLOGY PROJECT (GPCP) DUE THE INHERENT INABILITY OF CONVENTIONAL SPACEBORNE SENSORS TO MEASURE LIGHT PRECIPITATION FROM SHALLOW LIQUID CLOUDS. THE PROPOSED WORK IS MOTIVATED BY RECENT CONVERGENT ESTIMATES OF THE GLOBAL SURFACE RADIATION FROM THE GLOBAL ENERGY AND WATER CYCLE EXPERIMENT (GEWEX) SURFACE RADIATION BUDGET (SRB) AND A-TRAIN BASED ESTIMATES THAT SUGGEST A MORE VIGOROUS CYCLING OF WATER AND THUS LATENT HEAT FROM THE SURFACE TO THE ATMOSPHERE THAN IS CURRENTLY ESTIMATED BY GPCP. FURTHER ANALYSIS IS NECESSARY TO IDENTIFY WHAT REGIONS AND MODES OF PRECIPITATION MAY PLAY INTO THE APPARENT INCONGRUITY IN GLOBAL SCALE RADIATION AND WATER CYCLE ESTIMATES. THE APPROACH OF THE PROPOSED WORK IS TO IMPROVE THE GLOBAL CLOSURE OF THE WATER AND ENERGY BUDGETS BY FOCUSING ON CLOSURE WITHIN A SPECIFIC REGIME (MARINE SUBSIDENCE REGIONS) WHERE THE CONVENTIONAL PRECIPITATION SENSORS HAVE KNOWN SHORTCOMINGS AND IN SITU OBSERVATIONS CONFIRM THAT LIGHT PRECIPITATION IS A COMMON OCCURRENCE. THIS PROPOSAL WILL SUPPORT THE WATER AND ENERGY CYCLE CLIMATOLOGY (2.3) WORKING GROUP BY EXPLORING THE REGIONAL CLOSURE OF THE WATER AND ENERGY CYCLE AND WILL LINK TO OTHER ELEMENTS OF THE NEWS PROGRAM BY LEVERAGING BOTH OBSERVATIONAL AND MODEL-REANALYSIS ESTIMATES OF SURFACE AND ATMOSPHERIC FLUXES OF HEAT AND MOISTURE THAT WILL INCLUDE NEW REGIONAL PRECIPITATION CLIMATOLOGIES IN MARINE SUBSIDENCE REGIONS. SPECIFIC DELIVERABLES OF THE PROPOSAL INCLUDE (1) A CHARACTERIZATION OF WATER AND ENERGY CYCLES IN MARINE SUBSIDENCE REGIONS, (2) DEVELOPMENT OF A CLIMATOLOGY OF SURFACE PRECIPITATION FROM CLOUDSAT OBSERVATIONS, AND (3) AN EVALUATION OF THE MOISTURE AND ENERGY FLUXES IN NASA S MODERN ERA RETROSPECTIVE-ANALYSIS FOR RESEARCH AND APPLICATIONS (MERRA) PROJECT. ANALYSIS OF THE REGIONAL WATER AND ENERGY BUDGET REQUIRES ESTIMATES OF (A) THE SURFACE SENSIBLE AND LATENT HEAT FLUXES, (B) THE SURFACE AND ATMOSPHERIC COMPONENT OF THE RADIATION BUDGET, AND (C) THE ATMOSPHERIC FLUX DIVERGENCE OF ENERGY AND MOISTURE. SURFACE SENSIBLE AND LATENT HEAT ESTIMATES WILL BE USED FROM THE FORTHCOMING GODDARD SATELLITE-BASED SURFACE TURBULENT FLUXES VERSION 3 (GSSTF-3) PRODUCT. RADIATION PRODUCTS WILL INCLUDE ESTIMATES FROM THE CLOUDS AND EARTH S RADIANT ENERGY SYSTEM (CERES) INSTRUMENT, THE CLOUDSAT FLUXES AND HEATING RATES PRODUCT, AND THE GEWEX SRB. WATER VAPOR DIVERGENCE WILL BE ESTIMATED FROM THE OBSERVATIONAL PRODUCT OF HILBURN (2009). THE UNIQUE OBSERVATIONS OF LIGHT PRECIPITATION FROM CLOUDSAT WILL BE USED TO QUANTIFY THE PRECIPITATION IN THE SUBSIDENCE REGIONS. CLOUDSAT IS IDEALLY SUITED TO COMPLIMENT THE EXISTING PRECIPITATION CLIMATOLOGY IN THESE REGIONS WHERE THE DISTRIBUTION OF PRECIPITATION IS DOMINATED BY LIGHT WARM RAIN EVENTS. RELEVANT TO THE OBJECTIVES OF THE NEWS PROGRAM, THIS PRECIPITATION DATASET WILL BE COMPARED AGAINST THAT OF GPCP AND CMAP IN ORDER TO REFINE OUR UNDERSTANDING OF THE ESTABLISHED GLOBAL CLIMATOLOGY. IN ADDITION, THE OBSERVATIONAL WATER AND ENERGY FLUXES WILL BE USED TO EVALUATE MERRA IN THESE SUBSIDENCE REGIONS TO DETERMINE HOW WELL MODERN REANALYSIS PRODUCTS CAPTURE THE REGIONAL WATER AND ENERGY BUDGETS.