TRMM Radar Observations of Shallow Precipitation over the Tropical Oceans

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Abstract
Observations from the precipitation radar aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite provide the first opportunity to map vertical structure properties of rain over the entire Tropics and subtropics. Storm height histograms reveal a distinct bimodal distribution over the oceans with the lowest mode near 2 km and the upper mode at 5 km. The low mode is the dominant feature over regions previously associated with precipitating marine stratocumulus/stratus and trade wind cumulus. In those regions a lognormal distribution fits the observed storm height distributions quite well, and a strong correlation exists between conditional mean rainfall rate and storm height. In addition, the low mode appears within the major tropical convergence zones associated with significant precipitation, and in those regions a mixed lognormal distribution is used to separate the storm height distribution into two parts: shallow and deep. In this exploratory analysis, the correlation between rainfall intensi... Abstract Observations from the precipitation radar aboard the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite provide the first opportunity to map vertical structure properties of rain over the entire Tropics and subtropics. Storm height histograms reveal a distinct bimodal distribution over the oceans with the lowest mode near 2 km and the upper mode at 5 km. The low mode is the dominant feature over regions previously associated with precipitating marine stratocumulus/stratus and trade wind cumulus. In those regions a lognormal distribution fits the observed storm height distributions quite well, and a strong correlation exists between conditional mean rainfall rate and storm height. In addition, the low mode appears within the major tropical convergence zones associated with significant precipitation, and in those regions a mixed lognormal distribution is used to separate the storm height distribution into two parts: shallow and deep. In this exploratory analysis, the correlation between rainfall intensi...

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