Search for: All records

Abstract Estimating the magnitude of tropical cyclone (TC) rainfall at different landfalling stages is an important aspect of the TC forecast that directly affects the level of response from emergency managers. In this study, a climatology of the TC rainfall magnitude as a function of the location of the TC centers within distance intervals from the coast and the percentage of the raining area over the land is presented on a global scale. A total of 1834 TCs in the period from 2000 until 2019 are analyzed using satellite information to characterize the precipitation magnitude, volumetric rain, rainfall area, and axial-symmetric properties within the proposed landfalling categories, with an emphasis on the postlandfall stages. We found that TCs experience rainfall maxima in regions adjacent to the coast when more than 50% of their rainfall area is over the water. TC rainfall is also analyzed over the entire TC extent and the portion over land. When the total extent is considered, rainfall intensity, volumetric rain, and rainfall area increase with wind speed intensity. However, once it is quantified over the land only, we found that rainfall intensity exhibits a nearly perfect inversely proportional relation with the increase in TC rainfall area. In addition, when a TC with life maximum intensity of a major hurricane makes landfall as a tropical depression or tropical storm, it usually produces the largest spatial extent and the highest volumetric rain. Significant StatementThis study aims to describe the cycle of tropical cyclone (TC) precipitation magnitude through a new approach that defines the landfall categories as a function of the percentage of the TC precipitating area over the land and ocean, along with the location of the TC centers within distance intervals from the coast. Our central hypothesis is that TC rainfall should exhibit distinct features in the long-term satellite time series for each of the proposed stages. We particularly focused on the overland events due to their effects on human activities, finding that the TCs that at some point of their life cycle reached major hurricane strength and made landfall as a tropical storm or tropical depression produced the highest volumetric rain over the land surface. This research also presents key observational evidence of the relationship between the rain rate, raining area, and volumetric rain for landfalling TCs. 

Abstract Theoretical models of the potential intensity of tropical cyclones (TCs) suggest that TC rainfall rates should increase in a warmer environment but limited observational evidence has been studied to test these hypotheses on a global scale. The present study explores the general trends of TC rainfall rates based on a 19-year (1998–2016) time series of continuous observational data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission and the Global Precipitation Measurement mission. Overall, observations exhibit an increasing trend in the average TC rainfall rate of about 1.3% per year, a fact that is contributed mainly by the combined effect of the reduction in the inner-core rainfall rate with the increase in rainfall rate on the rainband region. We found that the increasing trend is more pronounced in the Northwestern Pacific and North Atlantic than in other global basins, and it is relatively uniform for all TC intensities. Further analysis shows that these trends are associated with increases in sea surface temperature and total precipitable water in the TC environment. 

Abstract Based on 19 years of precipitation data collected by the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) and the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission, a comparison of the rainfall produced by tropical cyclones (TCs) in different global basins is presented. A total of 1789 TCs were examined in the period from 1998 to 2016 by taking advantage of more than 47,737 observations of TRMM/GPM 3B42 multi-satellite derived rainfall amounts. The axisymmetric component of the TC rainfall is analyzed in all TC-prone basins. The resulting radial profiles show that major hurricanes in the Atlantic basin exhibit significantly heavier inner-core rainfall rates than those in any other basins. To explain the possible causes of this difference, rainfall distributions for major hurricanes are stratified according to different TC intensity and environmental variables. Based on the examination of these parameters, we found that the stronger rainfall rates in the Atlantic major hurricanes are associated with higher values of convective available potential energy, drier relative humidity in the low to middle troposphere, colder air temperature at 250hPa, and stronger vertical wind shear than other basins. These results have important implications in the refining of our understanding of the mechanisms of TC rainfall.