Abstract

The short-term tropical surface rainfall processes in rainfall regions (raining stratiform and convective regions) and rainfall-free regions (non-raining stratiform and clear-sky regions) are investigated based on the hourly data from a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulation. The model is integrated over a 21-day period with imposed zonally uniform vertical velocity, zonal wind, horizontal temperature and vapor advection, and sea surface temperature from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The analysis of the model domain-mean surface rainfall budget reveals that surface rainfall is mainly associated with water vapor convergence and local atmospheric drying. The mean surface rainfall lags the mean water vapor convergence by 3 h. The convective–stratiform rainfall separation analysis shows that convective rainfall is associated with water vapor convergence, whereas stratiform rainfall is related to the local atmospheric drying and hydrometeor loss/convergence. The transport of water vapor from rainfall-free regions to rainfall regions creates the main water vapor source for rainfall while it balances local atmospheric drying in rainfall-free regions. Surface evaporation plays a minor role in short-term surface rainfall processes.

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