An investigation of the height distribution of tropical convection over northern Australia

This report gives a brief analysis of a storm dataset covering the 2003/2004 northern Australian wet season. An extensive database of storm characteristics measured with the Berrimah (Darwin) radar, covering the period from November 2003 until February 2004 was assembled. The report investigates the distribution of the maximum height of convective clouds over Darwin. It seeks to give some insight into the diurnal evolution of cloud-top heights, and the variation between the modes of convection seen in monsoonal flow regimes, compared with that in ‘break' periods. It will also briefly discuss the impact of these observations on the concept of a ‘Trimodal distribution' [1] of convection in the tropics.

[1] Johnson et al. 1999: Trimodal Characteristics of Tropical Convection. Journal of Climate: Vol. 12, No. 8, pp. 2397–2418.