Journal
JOURNAL OF HYDROMETEOROLOGY
Volume 17, Issue 1, Pages 353-367Publisher
AMER METEOROLOGICAL SOC
DOI: 10.1175/JHM-D-15-0067.1
Keywords
Circulation; Dynamics; Deep convection; Mesoscale systems; Atm; Ocean Structure; Phenomena; Extreme events; Precipitation; Physical Meteorology and Climatology; Hydrometeorology; Orographic effects
Categories
Funding
- NSF [AGS-1144105]
- NASA [NNX13AG71G, NNX10AH70G]
- NASA Earth and Space Science Graduate Fellowship [NNX11AL65H]
- NASA [133020, NNX13AG71G, 474614, NNX10AH70G] Funding Source: Federal RePORTER
- Div Atmospheric & Geospace Sciences
- Directorate For Geosciences [1144105, 1503155] Funding Source: National Science Foundation
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The contribution of extreme convective storms to rainfall in South America is investigated using 15 years of high-resolution data from the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) Precipitation Radar (PR). Precipitation from three specific types of storms with extreme horizontal and vertical dimensions have been calculated and compared to the climatological rain. The tropical and subtropical regions of South America differ markedly in the influence of storms with extreme dimensions. The tropical regions, especially the Amazon basin, have aspects similar to oceanic convection. Convection in the subtropical regions, centered on La Plata basin, exhibits patterns consistent with storm life cycles initiating in the foothills of the Andes and growing into larger mesoscale convective systems that propagate to the east. In La Plata basin, convective storms with a large horizontal dimension contribute similar to 44% of the rain and the accumulated influence of all three types of storms with extreme characteristics produce similar to 95% of the total precipitation in the austral summer.
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