The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters
Using multiyear satellite rainfall estimates, the distributions of the area, and the total rain rate of rain clusters over the equatorial Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans was found to exhibit a power law f[subscript s](s)~s[superscript -ζ[subscript s]], in which S represents either the cluster a...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , |
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| Other Authors: | |
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
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American Geophysical Union (AGU)
2019
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| Online Access: | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122020 |
| _version_ | 1826192010166403072 |
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| author | Teo, C.-K. Huynh, H.-N. Koh, T.-Y. Cheung, K. K. W. Legras, B. Chew, L. Y. Norford, Leslie Keith |
| author2 | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture |
| author_facet | Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Teo, C.-K. Huynh, H.-N. Koh, T.-Y. Cheung, K. K. W. Legras, B. Chew, L. Y. Norford, Leslie Keith |
| author_sort | Teo, C.-K. |
| collection | MIT |
| description | Using multiyear satellite rainfall estimates, the distributions of the area, and the total rain rate of rain clusters over the equatorial Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans was found to exhibit a power law f[subscript s](s)~s[superscript -ζ[subscript s]], in which S represents either the cluster area or the cluster total rain rate and f[subscript s](s) denotes the probability density function of finding an event of size s. The scaling exponents ζS were estimated to be 1.66 ± 0.06 and 1.48 ± 0.13 for the cluster area and cluster total rain rate, respectively. The two exponents were further found to be related via the expected total rain rate given a cluster area. These results suggest that convection over the tropical oceans is organized into rain clusters with universal scaling properties. They are also related through a simple scaling relation consistent with classical self-organized critical phenomena. The results from this study suggest that mesoscale rain clusters tend to grow by increasing in size and intensity, while larger clusters tend to grow by self-organizing without intensification. Keywords: tropical rain clusters; self-organized criticality |
| first_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:04:53Z |
| format | Article |
| id | mit-1721.1/122020 |
| institution | Massachusetts Institute of Technology |
| language | English |
| last_indexed | 2024-09-23T09:04:53Z |
| publishDate | 2019 |
| publisher | American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| record_format | dspace |
| spelling | mit-1721.1/1220202022-09-26T10:18:26Z The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters Scaling of Tropical Rain Clusters Teo, C.-K. Huynh, H.-N. Koh, T.-Y. Cheung, K. K. W. Legras, B. Chew, L. Y. Norford, Leslie Keith Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Architecture Using multiyear satellite rainfall estimates, the distributions of the area, and the total rain rate of rain clusters over the equatorial Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic Oceans was found to exhibit a power law f[subscript s](s)~s[superscript -ζ[subscript s]], in which S represents either the cluster area or the cluster total rain rate and f[subscript s](s) denotes the probability density function of finding an event of size s. The scaling exponents ζS were estimated to be 1.66 ± 0.06 and 1.48 ± 0.13 for the cluster area and cluster total rain rate, respectively. The two exponents were further found to be related via the expected total rain rate given a cluster area. These results suggest that convection over the tropical oceans is organized into rain clusters with universal scaling properties. They are also related through a simple scaling relation consistent with classical self-organized critical phenomena. The results from this study suggest that mesoscale rain clusters tend to grow by increasing in size and intensity, while larger clusters tend to grow by self-organizing without intensification. Keywords: tropical rain clusters; self-organized criticality 2019-08-28T14:37:27Z 2019-08-28T14:37:27Z 2017-05 2017-05 2019-08-07T16:19:38Z Article http://purl.org/eprint/type/JournalArticle 2169-897X https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122020 Teo, C.-K. et al. "The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters." JGR Atmospheres 122 (June 2017): 5582-5599 © 2017 American Geophysical Union en http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2016jd025921 JGR Atmospheres Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use. application/pdf American Geophysical Union (AGU) American Geophysical Union (AGU) |
| spellingShingle | Teo, C.-K. Huynh, H.-N. Koh, T.-Y. Cheung, K. K. W. Legras, B. Chew, L. Y. Norford, Leslie Keith The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| title | The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| title_full | The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| title_fullStr | The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| title_full_unstemmed | The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| title_short | The universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| title_sort | universal scaling characteristics of tropical oceanic rain clusters |
| url | https://hdl.handle.net/1721.1/122020 |
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