Climatology of precipitation and clouds over SW_ATLANTIC
SW ATLANTIC


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 1154214 snapshots of precipitation features with size > 80 km^2 have been collected over SW_ATLANTIC , where 240 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 1154214 89 221 2.7 0.6 0.00
    DJF 253231 78 198 2.8 0.6 0.00
    MAM 361964 106 293 3.0 0.8 0.00
    JJA 343338 77 176 2.4 0.4 0.00
    SON 195681 92 198 2.6 0.3 0.00

  • Extreme rainy events
  • In all 1154214 precipitation features, top 1% ( volumetric rain > 1813 mm/hr*km^2) rainy features contribute 46 % of total rainfall. Top 100 rainiest events observed by TRMM during 1998-2013 over SW_ATLANTIC 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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