Climatology of precipitation and clouds over S_CHINA_SEA
S CHINA SEA

General info
Precipitation
System properties
Cloud
Seasonal variation
Diurnal variation
Vertical Structure
Extreme events
Time series
  • Precipitation seasonal variation

    • Over S_CHINA_SEA , mean annual precipitation are estimated with 1454.5 (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 40 %, MCSs (Mesoscale convective systems with raining area > 2000 km^2) contribute 75 % 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 S_CHINA_SEA is shown below:





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

    The copyright of figures from this website is reserved. Questions send to chuntao.liu@tamucc.edu