CONVECTIVE-STRATIFORM RAINFALL PARTITION BY RADIANCE-DERIVED CLOUD CONTENT: A MODELING STUDY

A new scheme that separates convective-stratiform rainfall is developed using threshold values of liquid water path (LWP) and ice water path (IWP). These cloud contents can be predicted with radiances at the Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) channels (23.8, 31.4, 89, and 150 GHz) through linear regression models. The scheme is demonstrated by an analysis of a two-dimensional cloud resolving model simulation that is imposed by a forcing derived from the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–CAtmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). The rainfall is considered convective if associated LWP is larger than 1.91 mm or IWP is larger than 1.70 mm. Otherwise, the rainfall is stratiform. The analysis of surface rainfall budget demonstrates that this new scheme is physically meaningful.