HR: 1340h
AN: A53D-1434    [Abstracts]
TI: Vertical Structure of Tropical Convection and Precipitation
AU: * Kubar, T
EM: tkubar@atmos.washington.edu
AF: University of Washington, Univerisity of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Box 351640, Seattle, WA 98195-1640, United States
AU: Hartmann, D L
EM: dennis@atmos.washington.edu
AF: University of Washington, Univerisity of Washington Atmospheric Sciences Box 351640, Seattle, WA 98195-1640, United States
AB: Cloudsat cloud radar data are used to investigate the vertical structure of cloud systems across the West and East Pacific of the ITCZ. Deep convective systems look structurally similar in both regions, and cover roughly 29 percent and 25 percent of the West and East Pacific, respectively. Shallow convective systems cover 4.5 percent and 2.4 percent of the East and West Pacific, respectivlely, and are individually larger in the East Pacific. Cloud radar data are also collocated with precipitation rates from Advanced Microwave Scanning Radiometer (AMSR) to examine differences in cloud top PDFs for different rainrate regimes. Heavily precipitating clouds mostly have high tops (peaks of 13-14 km in the East Pacific and 15-16 km in the West Pacific) that are two to three km deeper than moderately raining or non-raining high clouds. Moderately raining clouds and non-raining clouds are much more bottom-heavy in the East Pacific. We also show that rainrate increases with cloud height, especially for clouds higher than 12 km. A nearly tenfold increase in rainrate is observed as cloud tops ascend from 12 km to near the tropical tropopause. Finally, we show that low clouds contribute 28 percent to total rainfall in the West Pacific and 40 percent in the East Pacific, but that they contribute 51 percent and 67 percent to total rain area, respectively. This is qualitatively consistent with the more bottom-heavy vertical velocity profile in the East Pacific.
DE: 0321 Cloud/radiation interaction
DE: 3310 Clouds and cloud feedbacks
DE: 3315 Data assimilation
DE: 3333 Model calibration (1846)
DE: 3360 Remote sensing
SC: Atmospheric Sciences [A]
MN: 2007 Fall Meeting