Climatology of precipitation and clouds over Tropics
(180W-180E 20S-20N)


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

  • During 1998-2011, total 15623919 snapshots of precipitation features with size > 80 km^2 have been collected over Tropics , where 392281 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 15623919 647 2378 5.6 3.1 0.21
    DJF 3804479 673 2445 5.5 3.0 0.17
    MAM 4099337 609 2247 5.6 3.2 0.21
    JJA 3798010 646 2402 5.4 3.0 0.21
    SON 3922093 658 2435 5.7 3.2 0.24

  • Extreme rainy events
  • In all 15623919 precipitation features, top 1% ( volumetric rain > 40480 mm/hr*km^2) rainy features contribute 50 % of total rainfall. Top 100 rainiest events observed by TRMM during 1998-2011 over Tropics 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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