Climatology of precipitation and clouds over Central_Sahara_Desert
Central Sahara Desert


General info
Precipitation
System properties
Cloud
Seasonal variation
Diurnal variation
Vertical Structure
Extreme events
Time series
  • Mean properties of precipitation system

  • During 1998-2013, total 155681 snapshots of precipitation features with size > 80 km^2 have been collected over Central_Sahara_Desert , where 2211 of them have lightning flashes inside. Some mean properties of these features are listed below:
    samples (#) mean size (km^2) mean volumetric rain (mm/hr*km^2) mean echo top (km) mean 30 dBZ ehco top (km)mean flash count (#)
    All 155681 116 224 6.7 0.7 0.10
    DJF 27683 136 183 6.5 0.2 0.00
    MAM 45811 109 201 6.7 0.6 0.06
    JJA 41480 108 268 7.0 1.1 0.20
    SON 40707 120 232 6.7 0.8 0.09

  • Extreme rainy events
  • In all 155681 precipitation features, top 1% ( volumetric rain > 3522 mm/hr*km^2) rainy features contribute 59 % of total rainfall. Top 100 rainiest events observed by TRMM during 1998-2013 over Central_Sahara_Desert are listed here . Following figure shows the location of the precipitation feautres categorized by the volumetric rainfall.


  • Extreme intense events
  • Some of the precipitation sytems are much intense with large hails and many lightning than others (see the lists of top lightning storms. Following figure shows the location of the precipitation feautres categorized by the lightning rate and 30 dBZ echo top.


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