Hydrometeors Distribution in Intense Precipitating Cloud Cells Over the Earth’s During Two Rainfall Seasons

Abstract

In the present study, we used attenuated corrected radar refectivity factor (Zₑ) and rain-drop size distribution (DSD) to investigate the hydrometeors distribution in the intense precipitating cloud cells (PCCs) from precipitation radar (PR) onboard on Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM). The DSD parameters consist of two variables, namely, mass-weighted mean diameter (Dₘ) in mm and normalized scaling parameters for hydrometeors concentration (Nw) in mm⁻¹ m⁻³. We defned two types of PCCs, which are the proxies for the intense rainfall events. First PCC is termed as Cumulonimbus Towers (CbTs), which consist of Zₑ> =20 dBZ at 12 km altitude, and its base height must be less than 3 km altitude. We also defned intense convective clouds (ICCs), which consist of Zₑ>30 (40) dBZ at 8 km (3 km), respectively, and are termed as ICC8 and ICC3, respectively. The spatial distribution reveals that continental areas consist of a higher frequency of CbTs and ICC8s compared to oceanic areas, whereas ICC3s are uniformly distributed over tropical land and oceanic areas. The DSD parameters reveal that intense PCCs have larger hydrometeors (Dₘ), whereas weaker (less Zₑ) vertical profles consist of higher concentration (Nw) of smaller hydrometeors (Dₘ). Land consists of larger hydrometeors (Dₘ) compared to oceanic areas, and diferences are higher in liquid phase regimes compared to mixed phase regimes. The vertical profles of Zₑ, Dₘ and Nw are showing the higher regional diferences among the diferent land-based areas, compared to various tropical ocean basins. Western Himalaya Foothills and Sierra De Cordoba consist of the strongest vertical profles with the largest Dₘ on the Earth’s áreas during JJAS and DJFM months, respectively.