Characteristics of event-based extreme precipitation in the tropics and mid-latitude land regions

Extreme precipitation (EP) has become increasingly frequent and is causing more devastating impacts on society in recent years. EP is traditionally measured by the maximum or threshold-exceeding gridded precipitation of a given duration. We have developed an extreme precipitation event (EPE) algorithm that tracks entire precipitation life cycle across space and time, which enables us to characterize properties of the entire EPE, such as duration (from sub-daily to multi-day), areal coverage, and total rain volume. These EPE characteristics are critical in understanding precipitation development and their interaction with large-scale meteorology, in addition, providing more comprehensive matrix for disaster management. This study examines the EPE characteristics and variability from the tropics and contiguous United States (CONUS) derived from high-resolution Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals from GPM (IMERG) product.