Lifecycle of organized convective systems: A Lagrangian perspective

We identify and track tropical convective systems in the Tropical Indian Ocean and Western Pacific from geostationary satellite observations and the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations. We present statistics of the tropical convective systems including size, age, and intensity and classify the lifecycle stage of each system as developing, mature, or dissipating. Initial results show that the model produces reasonable overall statistics of convective systems. Evolution of various environmental variables along the tracks of the clouds in the model simulation and cluster analysis are used to identify the processes that control the nature, growth, dissipation and lifetime of convective systems.