Cloud–Precipitation Hybrid Regimes and Their Projection onto IMERG Precipitation Data

Abstract

In order to better understand cloud-precipitation relationships, we extend the concept of cloud regimes (CRs) developed from two-dimensional joint histograms of cloud optical thickness and cloud top pressure from the Moderate Resolution Imaging Spectroradiometer (MODIS), to include precipitation information. Taking advantage of the high-resolution Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM (IMERG) precipitation dataset, we derive cloud-precipitation “hybrid” regimes by implementing a k -means clustering algorithm with advanced initialization and objective measures to determine the optimal number of clusters. By expressing the variability of precipitation rates within 1-degree grid cells as histograms and varying the relative weight of cloud and precipitation information in the clustering algorithm, we obtain several editions of hybrid cloud-precipitation regimes (CPRs), and examine their characteristics.

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Recommended citation: Daeho Jin, Lazaros Oreopoulos, Dongmin Lee, Jackson Tan, Nayeong Cho, "Cloud–Precipitation Hybrid Regimes and Their Projection onto IMERG Precipitation Data." J. App. Meteor. Clim., 2021.
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