Characterization of precipitation systems using TRMM/PR and CloudSat data

Both CloudSat and TRMM/PR data are utilized to characterize the cloud-precipitation system globally and several analysis methods are proposed in this paper: combined contoured frequency by altitude diagram (CFAD), combined echo area, and size/height/strength diagram. The global map of CFAD (10 × 10 degree boxes) shows good correspondence with the conventional climate classification and also the diurnal change and indicates varieties of cloud-precipitation processes. Combined echo area data also indicates the possible characterization of precipitation system. The size/height/strength diagram seems very difficult to deal with, but has high potential to characterize the precipitation system.