The vertical structure of latent heating and its association with cloud types during the Indian summer monsoon

ABSTRACT

In the present communication, using cloud-type distribution derived from CloudSat observations during the years 2006–2010 and vertical structure of LH derived from Tropical Rain Measuring Mission (TRMM) observations during the same period over the Indian summer monsoon (ISM) region, an attempt is made to relate the both. First, the regions where particular type of clouds forms predominantly are identified and then the LH profiles over those regions are associated with that particular cloud type. Using this approach, mean vertical structure of LH of Deep convective (DC) clouds over the Bay of Bengal (BoB) and Central India (CI) region, LH profile of Stratocumulus (Sc) and Cumulus (Cu) clouds over the Arabian Sea (ARB) and the Western Ghats (WG) region, respectively are constructed. The LH profile associated with DC clouds shows a broad distribution with a bimodal structure over the BoB and CI regions with peak value around 7 km. The LH profiles associated with Sc and Cu cloud types peak at lower height levels corresponding to shallow convection over ARB and WG regions. The significance of the present study lies in indirectly associating the observed vertical structure of LH with various types of clouds over the ISM region.

Acknowledgements

The authors are greatly thankful to TRMM and CloudSat team for making their observations publically available for research.