Journal article
Scaling of tropical rainfall as observed by TRMM precipitation radar
Atmospheric research, Vol.88(3), pp.337-354
2008
DOI: 10.1016/j.atmosres.2007.11.028
Abstract
We used a three-year (1998–2000) dataset of TRMM Precipitation Radar observations to investigate the scaling properties of spatial rainfall fields. This dataset allows consideration of spatial scales ranging from about 4.3 km to 138 km and short temporal scales corresponding to the sensor overpasses. The focus is on the marginal spatial moment scaling, which allows estimation of the scaling parameters from a single scene of data. Here we present a global perspective of the scaling properties of tropical rainfall in terms of its spatial variability, atmospheric forcing, predictability, and applicability. Our results reveal the following: 1) the scaling parameters exhibit strong variability associated with land/ocean contrast and mean precipitation at the synoptic scale; 2) there exists a one-to-one relationship between the scaling parameters and the large-scale spatial average rain rate of a universal functional form; 3) the majority of the scenes are consistent with the hypothesis of scale invariance at the moment orders of 0 and 2; 4) relatively there are more scale-invariant rain scenes over land than over ocean; and 5) for the scenes that are non-scale-invariant, deviation from scale-invariance mainly arises from the increasingly intermittent behavior of rainfall as spatial scale decreases. These results have important implications for the development and calibration of downscaling procedures designed to reproduce rainfall properties at different spatial scales and lead to a better understanding of the nature of tropical rainfall at various spatial resolutions.
Details
- Title: Subtitle
- Scaling of tropical rainfall as observed by TRMM precipitation radar
- Creators
- Mekonnen Gebremichael - Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering, University of Connecticut, Storrs, CT 06269, United StatesWitold F Krajewski - IIHR-Hydroscience and Engineering, The University of Iowa, Iowa City, Iowa 52242, United StatesThomas M Over - Department of Geology/Geography, Eastern Illinois University, Charleston, Illinois 61920-3099, United StatesYukari N Takayabu - Center for Climate System Research (CCSR), University of Tokyo, JapanPhillip Arkin - Earth System Science Interdisciplinary Center (ESSIC), University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742-2465, United StatesM Katayama - Center for Climate System Research (CCSR), University of Tokyo, Japan
- Resource Type
- Journal article
- Publication Details
- Atmospheric research, Vol.88(3), pp.337-354
- Publisher
- Elsevier B.V
- DOI
- 10.1016/j.atmosres.2007.11.028
- ISSN
- 0169-8095
- eISSN
- 1873-2895
- Language
- English
- Date published
- 2008
- Academic Unit
- Civil and Environmental Engineering
- Record Identifier
- 9983991943302771
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