OS51D-05:
Exploring the Relationship between Surface Wind Convergence and Convective Rainfall in the Tropics.
Friday, 19 December 2014: 9:00 AM
Thomas Kilpatrick, Scripps Institution of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States, Shang-Ping Xie, Scripps Institute of Oceanography, La Jolla, CA, United States and Tomoe Nasuno, JAMSTEC Japan Agency for Marine-Earth Science and Technology, Yokohama,, Japan
Abstract:
The relationship between surface wind convergence and tropical convective rainfall is explored in scatterometer measurements and a 3.5-km mesh, global cloud system- resolving numerical model (NICAM). At the large (>300 km) scale, convective rainfall is correlated with surface wind convergence in the model and scatterometer measurements. At smaller scales resolved by the model, convective rainfall is correlated with surface wind divergence, due to cold pools and their associated gust fronts, while the scatterometer measurements only hint at this scale transition. The next generation microwave scatterometer/radiometer combination will allow systematic study of the surface wind-rainfall relationship in these mesoscale convective systems.
