Rain on small tropical islands

Abstract

[1] A high-resolution rainfall climatology based on observations from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission's Precipitation Radar (PR) instrument is used to evaluate the influence of small tropical islands on climatological rainfall. Islands with areas between one hundred and several thousand km2 are considered in both the Indo-Pacific Maritime Continent and Caribbean regions. Annual mean climatological (1997–2007) rainfall over each island is compared with that over the surrounding ocean region, and the difference is expressed as a percentage. In addition to total rainfall, rain frequency and intensity are also analyzed. Results are stratified into two 12 h halves of the diurnal cycle as well as eight 3 h periods, and also by a measure of each island's topographic relief. In both regions, there is a clear difference between larger islands (areas of a few hundred km2 or greater) and smaller ones. Both rain frequency and total rainfall are significantly enhanced over larger islands compared to the surrounding ocean. For smaller islands the enhancement is either negligibly small, statistically insignificant, or, in the case of Caribbean rain frequency, negative. The enhancement in total rainfall over larger islands is partly attributable to greater frequency and partly to greater intensity. A diurnal cycle in island enhancement is evident in frequency but not intensity, except over small Caribbean islands where the converse is true. For the larger islands, higher orography is associated with greater rainfall enhancements. The orographic effect is larger (percentagewise) in the Caribbean than in the Maritime Continent. Orographic precipitation enhancement manifests more strongly as increased frequency of precipitation rather than increased intensity and is present at night as well as during the day. The lack of a clear diurnal cycle in orographic enhancement suggests that much of the orographic rainfall enhancement is attributable to mechanically forced upslope flow rather than elevated surface heating.