Finescale climatology of widespread precipitation systems observed by TRMM PR

The long-term accumulation of data from the first spaceborne precipitation radar has allowed a reduction in the sampling uncertainties of infrequent widespread systems, which has permitted discussion on the fine-scale climatology of orographically controlled precipitation systems. The importance of the detectability of large-scale precipitation systems (>100 km) was confirmed in terms of the contributions of rain samples and rainfall amount. The number of large-scale systems for each 0.1° grid ranged from 0 to 939. The vertical extent of the large-scale systems was associated with sea surface temperature, regardless of latitude (36.3°S-36.3°N). The fine-scale storm dataset refined the understanding of the diurnal cycle of land-ocean differences in coastal regions. The maximum total and hourly rainfall occurred at 0.2° off and inside the coastline, respectively. The prevailing large and medium (10-100 km) systems over adjacent oceans and land enhanced before dawn and in the early afternoon, respectively.