The Influence of Convective Available Potential Energy and Vertical Wind Shear on the Size and Structure of Deep Convective Cloud Systems Throughout the Global Tropics

The radiative forcing of convective cloudiness in the tropics is dominated by the contributions from the largest convective clusters and superclusters. Toward a goal of understanding the factors influencing the development of these largest cloud clusters we characterize the empirical relationships between the size and structure of deep convective cloud systems from Terra and Aqua polar orbiting observations and atmospheric environmental factors determined from co-located NASA MERRA-2 reanalysis products. We find that the size of convective cloud systems increases systematically with the maximum values of both the convective available potential energy (CAPE) and the vertical shear of the horizonal wind within the boundary of the cloud system. In this work we explore the regional variations of these relationships, as well as their relationships to the temporal evolution of CAPE, cloud system structure, cloud microphysics, and regional cloud radiative forcing.