Climatological Behavior of Precipitating Clouds in the Northeast Region of Brazil

This study aims to analyze the climatological classification of precipitating clouds in the Northeast of Brazil using the radar on board the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite. Thus, for this research a time series of 15 years of satellite data (period 1998–2012) was analyzed in order to identify what types of clouds produce precipitation estimated by Precipitation Radar (PR) and how often these clouds occur. From the results of this work it was possible to estimate the average relative frequency of each type of cloud present in weather systems that influence the Northeast of Brazil. In general, the stratiform clouds and shallow convective clouds are the most frequent in this region, but the associated rainfall is not as abundant as precipitation caused by deep convective clouds. It is also seen that a strong signal of shallow convective clouds modulates rainfall over the coastal areas of Northeast of Brazil and adjacent ocean. In this scenario, the main objective of this study is to contribute to a better understanding of the patterns of cloud types associated with precipitation and building a climatological analysis from the classification of clouds.

[1]  C. Randow,et al.  Climate change impacts on the sustainability of the firewood harvest and vegetation and soil carbon stocks in a tropical dry forest in Santa Teresinha Municipality, Northeast Brazil ☆ , 2016 .

[2]  N. J. Ferreira,et al.  Case Studies of Easterly Wave Disturbances over Northeast Brazil Using the Eta Model , 2011 .

[3]  Charles Jones,et al.  Extreme Precipitation Events in Southeastern South America and Large-Scale Convective Patterns in the South Atlantic Convergence Zone , 2002 .

[4]  Robert A. Houze,et al.  The TRMM Precipitation Radar's View of Shallow, Isolated Rain , 2003 .

[5]  Nelson Jesus Ferreira,et al.  Statistical analysis of upper tropospheric vortices in the vicinity of northeast Brazil during the 1980-1989 period , 2009 .

[6]  V. B. Rao,et al.  Tropical Cloudiness over the South Atlantic Ocean , 1977 .

[7]  C. Kummerow,et al.  The Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Sensor Package , 1998 .

[8]  C. M. Santos e Silva,et al.  Climatology and trend analysis of extreme precipitation in subregions of Northeast Brazil , 2017, Theoretical and Applied Climatology.

[9]  V. Kousky,et al.  Fluctuations in Annual Rainfall for Northeast Brazil1 , 1978 .

[10]  Yasu-masa Kodama,et al.  Large-Scale Common Features of Sub-Tropical Convergence Zones (the Baiu Frontal Zone, the SPCZ, and the SACZ) Part II : Conditions of the Circulations for Generating the STCZs , 1993 .

[11]  Freddie Mpelasoka,et al.  When every drop counts: Analysis of Droughts in Brazil for the 1901-2013 period. , 2016, The Science of the total environment.

[12]  Yasu-masa Kodama,et al.  Large-Scale Common Features of Subtropical Precipitation Zones (the Baiu Frontal Zone, the SPCZ, and , 1992 .

[13]  R. Scofield,et al.  The Operational GOES Infrared Rainfall Estimation Technique , 1998 .

[14]  M. Dias,et al.  Verification of the role of the low level jets in Amazon squall lines , 2011 .

[15]  Richard J. Blakeslee,et al.  THE CHUVA PROJECT How Does Convection Vary across Brazil , 2014 .

[16]  M. Gan,et al.  Structure and evolution of the large-scale flow and an embedded upper-tropospheric cyclonic vortex over northeast Brazil , 2001 .

[17]  Robert Meneghini,et al.  Intercomparison of Single-Frequency Methods for Retrieving a Vertical Rain Profile from Airborne or Spaceborne Radar Data , 1994 .

[18]  Sergio H. Franchito,et al.  Seasonal and Interannual Variations of Rainfall over Eastern Northeast Brazil , 1993 .