A 10-year climatology of vertical properties of most active convective clouds over the Indian regions using TRMM PR

Abstract

Vertical distribution of hydrometeors in the most intense convective clouds over the Indian region during the summer monsoon season (JJAS) is described for ten climatologically important areas. Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (TRMM PR) 3D radar reflectivity data is used in the present study for 10 years (2001-2010). The study constructs a convective cloud cell based on reflectivity thresholds, known as most intense convective cloud. The cloud cells are formed by taking the maximum reflectivity (Ze) at each altitude in the convective area with at least one radar pixel containing reflectivity of 40 dBZ or more. TRMM 2A23 data was used to eliminate the stratiform clouds from our analyses. The Vertical structure of convective clouds were studied over the east and west coast of India, and observation shows that the east coast consists of a higher frequency of convective clouds with high reflectivity values in average vertical profiles. It is observed that over the northeastern parts of the Indian subcontinent, similar to 30 % of convective cells extend beyond 15-km height whereas it is only similar to 4 % over the central Bay of Bengal. Over the Western Ghats, similar to 13 % of the cells have their tops below the freezing level, i.e. warm clouds do give heavy rain here. The regional differences in the vertical profile are high between the 5- and 12-km altitude. Most intense convective cells (MICCs) with a cloud top height more than 10 and 15 km show different characteristics, and the Western Ghats shows the most intense average vertical profile. Above 12 km, the western coast shows increased reflectivity value. Convective intensity is higher over the land-dominated areas for the cloud cells and decreases when we restrict the cloud cells to a certain altitude.