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
  • Precipitation seasonal variation

    • Over Central_Sahara_Desert , mean annual precipitation are estimated with 54.3 (mm/year) from TRMM precipitation radar. (distribution of precipitation see here )

    Total surface rainfall is brought by various precipitation systems. The seasonal variation of precipitation from systems with different sizes and heights are shown below:

    In total, thunderstorms (systems with detected lightning flashes) contribute 43 %, MCSs (Mesoscale convective systems with raining area > 2000 km^2) contribute 50 % of all precipitation. Seasonal variations of fraction of precipitation from thunderstorms and MCSs are shown below:

  • Cloud seasonal variation

    • The seasonal variation of geographical distribution of CloudSat cloud fraction over Central_Sahara_Desert is shown below:





    The seasonal variation of mean CloudSat level cloud fraction at different altitudes over Central_Sahara_Desert is shown below:

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