The Relationship between Large-Scale Convective Rainfall and Cold Cloud over the Western Hemisphere during 1982-84

Abstract

Estimates of areal- and time-averaged convective precipitation derived from geostationary satellite imagery using a simple thresholding technique are presented. The estimates are based on measurements of the monthly mean fraction of 2.5° × 2.5° areas covered by clouds whose equivalent blackbody temperature in infrared imagery is below 235 K. The transformation between fractional coverage and rainfall amount is based upon comparisons of fractional coverages using a variety of temperature thresholds and spatial and temporal averaging scales with areal averaged rainfall from the GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment. Three-year means of the estimated precipitation for the period December 1981-November 1984 are shown for each of the (3-month) calendar seasons and compared with published descriptions of the long-term seasonal mean rainfall fields. Over the tropical oceans agreement is quite good with no evidence of any systematic errors. Over the Americas, long-term means derived from station observations... Abstract Estimates of areal- and time-averaged convective precipitation derived from geostationary satellite imagery using a simple thresholding technique are presented. The estimates are based on measurements of the monthly mean fraction of 2.5° × 2.5° areas covered by clouds whose equivalent blackbody temperature in infrared imagery is below 235 K. The transformation between fractional coverage and rainfall amount is based upon comparisons of fractional coverages using a variety of temperature thresholds and spatial and temporal averaging scales with areal averaged rainfall from the GARP Atlantic Tropical Experiment. Three-year means of the estimated precipitation for the period December 1981-November 1984 are shown for each of the (3-month) calendar seasons and compared with published descriptions of the long-term seasonal mean rainfall fields. Over the tropical oceans agreement is quite good with no evidence of any systematic errors. Over the Americas, long-term means derived from station observations...