Vertical Structure of Tropical Deep Convective Systems at Different Life Stages From CloudSat Observations

Abstract

Tropical deep convective systems (DCSs) are objectively identified and categorized into different life stages from CloudSat observations • As DCS evolves, newly formed ice particles are likely to accumulate around convective pillars rather than being transmitted to anvil clouds • Precipitation occurs in a narrow region within the pillar during developing stage, widens at mature stage and shrinks at dissipating stage

The Global Nature of Early‐Afternoon and Late‐Night Convection Through the Eyes of the A‐Train

“…Active sensors, such as those on TRMM, GPM, CloudSat, and CALIPSO, offer added benefit for identifying cloud objects and quantifying storm intensity by assigning vertical structure to each cloud object (Bacmeister & Stephens, 2011; Nesbitt et al., 2000; Zipser et al., 2006). The vertical characteristics of cloud objects can be matched with other features, such as cloud top heights and anvil width, to create a three‐dimensional description of the cloud object (e.g., Deng et al., 2016; Igel et al., 2014) at various life stages (Hu et al., 2021). Such measurements supply information on the vertical distribution of liquid and ice particles to distinguish updraft regions, precipitating and nonprecipitating anvil, and detrained cirrus.…”