Variations in the Diurnal Cycle of Precipitation and Its Changes with Distance from Shore over Two Contrasting Regions as Observed by IMERG, ERA5, and Spaceborne Ku Radar

Abstract

Abstract The diurnal cycle of precipitation is highly regional and is typically a product of multiple competing, highly localized effects. The diurnal cycle in regions such as the Amazon and the Maritime Continent are of particular interest, due to the complex coastal and terrain effects. The high spatial and temporal resolution provided by the Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission (IMERG) dataset are used in this study to examine the fine-scale features of the diurnal cycle in these regions. Using an 18-yr (2000–18) record of IMERG precipitation observations, diurnal and semidiurnal phase and amplitude are calculated using a fast Fourier transform (FFT) method on half-hourly averaged precipitation at 0.1° × 0.1°. Clear patterns of precipitation phase propagation with distance from shore are shown over both regions, with the diurnal phase and amplitude exhibiting a strong dependence on the distance from the coastline. Semidiurnal cycles are generally weaker than the diurnal cycle except in some isolated locations. Similar analysis is also conducted on the ERA5 reanalysis data in order to evaluate the model’s representation of the precipitation diurnal cycle. The model captures the broadscale patterns of diurnal variability but does not capture all the fine-scale patterns nor the exact timing that is observed by IMERG. Comparisons are also made to a long-record Ku radar dataset created by combining Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and GPM observations, thus providing an additional point of comparison for the timing of the ERA5 precipitation peak, since the timing precipitation can be different, even in between observational datasets.