Abstract

In order to find out the characteristics of stratiform/convective dominance over surface rainfall, upper-air meteorological elements like cloud liquid water (CLW), precipitation water (PW) and latent heat (LH) have been analysed from the surface to a height of 18 km, for a few selected stations in India and a few other global locations. The data required for the study are the CLW, PW, LH and rainfall data from the data product 2A12 of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite (TRMM) Microwave Imager (TMI) for the period 1999-2002, 2007 and 2008; bright band height (BBH) and freezing level height (HFL) data from 2A23 of the Precipitation Radar (PR) onboard TRMM for the period 1999 - 2002. Vertical profiles of PW, LH and CLW have been presented. Two new parameters, called height of peak cloud liquid water (HPCL) and precipitation water at HPCL have been introduced. HPCL is defined as the height where CLW shows its peak. It is found that absorption and evolution of LH along the vertical column, PW values at HPCL and the level of LH absorption peak are able to explain stratiform/convective dominance over surface rainfall.

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