(See detailed analysis)

Different precipitation systems

Precipitation systems over tropics contributes the two-thirds of the global rainfall and are a major source of latent heating for the atmosphere. These systems include single cumulonimbus clouds, warm rain showers, large, long-lives mesoscale convective systems (MCS) etc. Different types of precipitation systems contributes different proportion of the total rainfall over various regions. For example, a large amount of rainfall over Argentina are from some of the largest MCSs, and shallow warm raining systems are the major contributers to the only limited amount of rainfall over some part of oceans,

With a decade of TRMM observations, more than 28 millions of precipitation systems have been found. Their contribution to the total rainfall, seasonal and diurnal cycles are analyzed and listed below:

 

PFs	Population fraction	Rainfall contribution	Geo Distribution	Seasonal loop	Diurnal loop	Annual loop
Size range 75-500 km^2	20.0%	13.5%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Size range 500-2000 km^2	2.5%	12.8%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Size range > 2000 km^2	1.0%	68.5%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Volumetric rainfall > 1000 mm/hr*km^2	4.3%	84.3%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Volumetric rainfall > 10000 mm/hr*km^2	0.7%	65.8%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Volumetric rainfall > 50000 mm/hr*km^2	0.2%	46.2%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
No lightning	99.4%	74.8%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Flashrate 0-10 flash/minute	0.5%	16.8%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Flashrate > 10 flash/minute	0.1%	8.4%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Maximum height of 20 dBZ > 0 km	89.9%	99.9%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Maximum height of 20 dBZ > 5 km	16.7%	85.1%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Maximum height of 20 dBZ > 10 km	1.1%	43.3%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Maximum height of 40 dBZ > 0 km	4.5%	80.0%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Maximum height of 40 dBZ > 5 km	0.8%	37.8%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Maximum height of 40 dBZ > 10 km	0.0%	1.9%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Minimum 85 GHz PCT < 250 K	3.4%	75.0%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Minimum 85 GHz PCT < 200 K	0.7%	45.8%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Minimum 85 GHz PCT < 150 K	0.1%	17.7%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Minimum infrared TB < 210 K	2.7%	45.2%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual
Minimum infrared TB < 235 K	15.1%	76.4%	see picture	seasonal	diurnal	annual

More detailed 10x10 degree global analysis can be accessed here.