Global rain types and their extremes

Courtney Schumacher

Texas A&M University

Tuesday, Jun 04, 2024, 2:00 pm MT
DSRC Room GC402

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Abstract

Convective and stratiform precipitation form through very different dynamical and microphysical processes. Sometimes they form in isolation (such as convective rain from an individual cumulus congestus or cumulonimbus cloud or stratiform rain from a nimbostratus cloud associated with isentropic lift), but often they form together and their interactions dictate the size, lifetime, and overall impact of precipitating systems around the globe.

This talk will focus on observations from NASA’s TRMM and GPM spaceborne radars to assess the relative importance of convective and stratiform rain processes in the production of precipitation in the tropics and extratropics, including their diurnal variability and extremes. In addition, I will address the use of stable isotopes to monitor these global rain types in the present and distant past.

Bio: Courtney Schumacher is a professor of Atmospheric Sciences at Texas A&M University. She has been there since 2003 and before that did her graduate work at the University of Washington. Her primary research is on tropical convective processes and common research threads revolve around understanding how storms become large and long lasting and how to improve predictions of rainfall and extreme events. Radar is a favorite tool of hers.