On remote sensing of convective clouds over Indian continent and quantification of their variability in a warming environment

Abstract

ABSTRACTConvective clouds are associated with extreme precipitation events triggering floods. They are an important part of atmospheric circulation and hydrological cycle. Changes in convective clouds in changing climate remain one of the most challenging aspects of forecasting future climate change. The present research focuses on identification of convective clouds using multispectral measurements at split window channels (near 10.5 µm and 12.5 µm) and water vapour absorption channels (near 6.7 µm) from Meteosat 7 observations. Variability of convective clouds has been examined in warming climate using observations from Meteosat First Generation (MFG). It has been reported that convective clouds show high density over Western, Central, North Eastern Indian region, and the Western Ghats during the monsoon period. This observation is consistent with measurement from Precipitation Radar (PR) (reflectivity-based threshold) on-board Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and rain gauge-based product. The present technique fails to detect shallow convective clouds over the Western Ghats. An increase of about 32.68% ± 5.81% per degree increase in temperature has been reported in convective clouds over India.