Diurnal cycle of precipitation determined from the CMORPH high spatial and temporal resolution global precipitation analyses

[1] The diurnal cycle of precipitation is examined both regionally and globally in this paper using high spatial and temporal resolution precipitation analyses that have been produced by NOAA's Climate Prediction Center morphing technique (CMORPH). The 8-km spatial resolution (at the equator) and 30-minute temporal resolution of these analyses permit an in-depth look at the diurnal cycle of precipitation over the globe. First, a macroscopic global view of the diurnal cycle of precipitation is presented. Power spectrum analysis reveals that the diurnal variations in global precipitation dominate the variability compared to all other timescales. Next, detailed regional examinations are made over the Americas that reveal intricate features of the diurnal cycle that have not been documented extensively to date. The results of this examination are contrasted with earlier studies that are based on IR data, and with, studies that make use of spaceborne passive microwave data that are considerably less complete in space and time than are used in this study.

[1]  H. Hendon,et al.  The diurnal cycle of tropical convection , 1993 .

[2]  J. Janowiak,et al.  The Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) combined precipitation dataset , 1997 .

[3]  Yale Mintz,et al.  Evaporation of rain falling from convective clouds as derived from radar measurements , 1988 .

[4]  Michael Garstang,et al.  Amazon Coastal Squall Lines. Part I: Structure and Kinematics , 1994 .

[5]  Harshvardhan,et al.  Diurnal Variability of the Hydrologic Cycle in a General Circulation Model , 1991 .

[6]  Thomas T. Wilheit,et al.  Some comments on passive microwave measurement of rain , 1986 .

[7]  Kevin E. Trenberth,et al.  Observed and model‐simulated diurnal cycles of precipitation over the contiguous United States , 1999 .

[8]  M. Murakami.  Analysis of the Deep Convective Activity Over the Western Pacific and Southeast Asia , 1983 .

[9]  Robert F. Adler,et al.  A Proposed Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Satellite , 1988 .

[10]  Robert F. Adler,et al.  A Regional Rainfall Climatology over Mexico and the Southwest United States Derived from Passive Microwave and Geosynchronous Infrared Data , 1993 .

[11]  R. J. Reed,et al.  Diurnal Variation of Summer Convection Over West Africa and the Tropical Eastern Atlantic During 1974 and 1978 , 1981 .

[12]  V. Kousky,et al.  Diurnally Forced Tropical Tropospheric Circulation over South America , 1987 .

[13]  P. Xie,et al.  Global Precipitation: A 17-Year Monthly Analysis Based on Gauge Observations, Satellite Estimates, and Numerical Model Outputs , 1997 .

[14]  P. A. Arkin,et al.  A combined microwave/infrared rain rate algorithm , 2001 .

[15]  E. Zipser,et al.  The Diurnal Cycle of Rainfall and Convective Intensity according to Three Years of TRMM Measurements , 2003 .

[16]  Richard Neale,et al.  Scale interactions on diurnal toseasonal timescales and their relevanceto model systematic errors , 2003 .

[17]  R. Scofield.  The NESDIS Operational Convective Precipitation- Estimation Technique , 1987 .

[18]  J. Janowiak,et al.  An Examination of the Diurnal Cycle in Oceanic Tropical Rainfall Using Satellite and In Situ Data , 1994 .

[19]  Robert A. Houze,et al.  Cloud clusters and superclusters over the oceanic warm pool , 1993 .

[20]  V. Kousky.  Diurnal Rainfall Variation in Northeast Brazil , 1980 .

[21]  Liming Xu,et al.  A Trmm-Calibrated Infrared Rainfall Algorithm Applied Over Brazil , 2001 .

[22]  R. Lavoie.  Some aspects of the meteorology of the tropical Pacific viewed from an atoll , 1963 .

[23]  W. M. Gray,et al.  Diurnal Variation of Deep Cumulus Convection , 1977 .

[24]  Witold F. Krajewski,et al.  Evaluation of Biases of Satellite Rainfall Estimation Algorithms over the Continental United States , 2002 .

[25]  R. J. Reed,et al.  Diurnal Variations in Convective Activity and Precipitation During Phases II and III of GATE , 1978 .

[26]  Dong-Jun Seo,et al.  The WSR-88D rainfall algorithm , 1998 .

[27]  John D. Tuttle,et al.  Inferences of Predictability Associated with Warm Season Precipitation Episodes , 2001 .

[28]  A. Gruber,et al.  Diurnal variation of outgoing longwave radiation , 1988 .

[29]  W. Bonner.  CLIMATOLOGY OF THE LOW LEVEL JET , 1968 .

[30]  J. Augustine.  The Diurnal Variation of Large-Scale Inferred Rainfall over the Tropical Pacific Ocean during August 1979 , 1984 .

[31]  A. Dai.  Global Precipitation and Thunderstorm Frequencies. Part II: Diurnal Variations , 2001 .

[32]  S. Sorooshian,et al.  Precipitation Estimation from Remotely Sensed Information Using Artificial Neural Networks , 1997 .

[33]  J. Janowiak,et al.  CMORPH: A Method that Produces Global Precipitation Estimates from Passive Microwave and Infrared Data at High Spatial and Temporal Resolution , 2004 .

[34]  R. J. Reed,et al.  The Diurnal Variation of Deep Convection and Inferred Precipitation in the Central Tropical Pacific During January–February 1979 , 1985 .

[35]  Phillip A. Arkin,et al.  Spatial and Annual Variations in the Diurnal Cycle of Large-Scale Tropical Convective Cloudiness and Precipitation , 1987 .