10th Conference on Satellite Meteorology and Oceanography
11th Symposium on Global Change Studies

JP3.15

Typical evolution of cold cloud patterns associated with wet and dry spells over Central America during the wet season

Malaquias Pena, CIMMS/Univ. of Oklahoma and NOAA/NSSL, Norman, OK; and M. W. Douglas

A compositing analysis of cold cloud top patterns during the summer rainy season with time scales of approximately one week is presented. Wet and dry episodes are identified from 5 years of daily rainfall data from a raingauge network of more than one hundred stations on the Pacific side of Central America. GOES IR satellite imagery of 3hr/16 km resolution is used to generate the composites of cloud top temperatures at different temperature thresholds for the days prior to and after the wet and dry spells. This study will show: 1) the daily evolution of the wet and dry spells from the satellite composites. 2) the structure of the wet and dry spells and their evolution from the NCEP reanalyses; and 3) the diurnal cycle of cloudiness during the wet and dry spells.

Joint Poster Session 3, Climatology and Long-Term Satellite Data Studies: Part II (Joint with the 11th Symposium on Global Change Studies)
Thursday, 13 January 2000, 10:00 AM-12:00 PM

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