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The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite
For over 16 years, the Precipitation Radar of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite detected the three‐dimensional structure of significantly precipitating clouds in the tropics and subtropics. This paper reviews and synthesizes studies using the TRMM radar data to present a globa...
Autores principales: | , , , |
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Formato: | Online Artículo Texto |
Lenguaje: | English |
Publicado: |
John Wiley and Sons Inc.
2015
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Materias: | |
Acceso en línea: | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5014290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27668295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015RG000488 |
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author | Houze, Robert A. Rasmussen, Kristen L. Zuluaga, Manuel D. Brodzik, Stella R. |
author_facet | Houze, Robert A. Rasmussen, Kristen L. Zuluaga, Manuel D. Brodzik, Stella R. |
author_sort | Houze, Robert A. |
collection | PubMed |
description | For over 16 years, the Precipitation Radar of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite detected the three‐dimensional structure of significantly precipitating clouds in the tropics and subtropics. This paper reviews and synthesizes studies using the TRMM radar data to present a global picture of the variation of convection throughout low latitudes. The multiyear data set shows convection varying not only in amount but also in its very nature across the oceans, continents, islands, and mountain ranges of the tropics and subtropics. Shallow isolated raining clouds are overwhelmingly an oceanic phenomenon. Extremely deep and intense convective elements occur almost exclusively over land. Upscale growth of convection into mesoscale systems takes a variety of forms. Oceanic cloud systems generally have less intense embedded convection but can form very wide stratiform regions. Continental mesoscale systems often have more intense embedded convection. Some of the most intense convective cells and mesoscale systems occur near the great mountain ranges of low latitudes. The Maritime Continent and Amazonia exhibit convective clouds with maritime characteristics although they are partially or wholly land. Convective systems containing broad stratiform areas manifest most strongly over oceans. The stratiform precipitation occurs in various forms. Often it occurs as quasi‐uniform precipitation with strong melting layers connected with intense convection. In monsoons and the Intertropical Convergence Zone, it takes the form of closely packed weak convective elements. Where fronts extend into the subtropics, broad stratiform regions are larger and have lower and sloping melting layers related to the baroclinic origin of the precipitation. |
format | Online Article Text |
id | pubmed-5014290 |
institution | National Center for Biotechnology Information |
language | English |
publishDate | 2015 |
publisher | John Wiley and Sons Inc. |
record_format | MEDLINE/PubMed |
spelling | pubmed-50142902016-09-23 The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite Houze, Robert A. Rasmussen, Kristen L. Zuluaga, Manuel D. Brodzik, Stella R. Rev Geophys Review Articles For over 16 years, the Precipitation Radar of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite detected the three‐dimensional structure of significantly precipitating clouds in the tropics and subtropics. This paper reviews and synthesizes studies using the TRMM radar data to present a global picture of the variation of convection throughout low latitudes. The multiyear data set shows convection varying not only in amount but also in its very nature across the oceans, continents, islands, and mountain ranges of the tropics and subtropics. Shallow isolated raining clouds are overwhelmingly an oceanic phenomenon. Extremely deep and intense convective elements occur almost exclusively over land. Upscale growth of convection into mesoscale systems takes a variety of forms. Oceanic cloud systems generally have less intense embedded convection but can form very wide stratiform regions. Continental mesoscale systems often have more intense embedded convection. Some of the most intense convective cells and mesoscale systems occur near the great mountain ranges of low latitudes. The Maritime Continent and Amazonia exhibit convective clouds with maritime characteristics although they are partially or wholly land. Convective systems containing broad stratiform areas manifest most strongly over oceans. The stratiform precipitation occurs in various forms. Often it occurs as quasi‐uniform precipitation with strong melting layers connected with intense convection. In monsoons and the Intertropical Convergence Zone, it takes the form of closely packed weak convective elements. Where fronts extend into the subtropics, broad stratiform regions are larger and have lower and sloping melting layers related to the baroclinic origin of the precipitation. John Wiley and Sons Inc. 2015-09-14 2015-09 /pmc/articles/PMC5014290/ /pubmed/27668295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015RG000488 Text en ©2015. The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution‐NonCommercial‐NoDerivs (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/4.0/) License, which permits use and distribution in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited, the use is non‐commercial and no modifications or adaptations are made. |
spellingShingle | Review Articles Houze, Robert A. Rasmussen, Kristen L. Zuluaga, Manuel D. Brodzik, Stella R. The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite |
title | The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite |
title_full | The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite |
title_fullStr | The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite |
title_full_unstemmed | The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite |
title_short | The variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: A legacy of 16 years of the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission satellite |
title_sort | variable nature of convection in the tropics and subtropics: a legacy of 16 years of the tropical rainfall measuring mission satellite |
topic | Review Articles |
url | https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC5014290/ https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/27668295 http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2015RG000488 |
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