Reflections on Radar Observations of Mesoscale Precipitation

One of Robert Houze’s key contributions to atmospheric sciences is the establishment of the importance of stratiform precipitation within mesoscale precipitation systems. Starting with data he helped to collect during the Global Atmospheric Research Programs’s Atlantic Tropical Experiment in 1974, he transformed our understanding of tropical cloud clusters from the pre-GATE view of convective “hot towers” with overhanging anvil cloud to convective precipitation aging into areally extensive, long lasting regions of stratiform precipitation within mesoscale convective systems. This talk will briefly review Houze’s foundational work on quantifying the kinematic and microphysical properties of stratiform precipitation using radar data and innovative methods of analyzing radar data that led to improved understanding mesoscale precipitation organization, evolution and sustainability. His contributions have motivated evolving perspectives on MCS behavior, leading to a more complete understanding of how organized convection interacts with the large-scale tropical wave dynamics.