Climatology of precipitation and clouds over TRMM region
(180W-180E 36S-36N)


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

  • During 1998-2011, total 28027871 snapshots of precipitation features with size > 80 km^2 have been collected over TRMM region , where 687271 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 28027871 731 2433 5.1 2.7 0.23
    DJF 6713904 770 2540 5.0 2.6 0.19
    MAM 7089096 727 2438 5.1 2.7 0.24
    JJA 7379218 697 2356 5.2 2.7 0.25
    SON 6845653 733 2481 5.3 2.8 0.24

  • Extreme rainy events
  • In all 28027871 precipitation features, top 1% ( volumetric rain > 44735 mm/hr*km^2) rainy features contribute 53 % of total rainfall. Top 100 rainiest events observed by TRMM during 1998-2011 over TRMM region 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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