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The Consistent Behavior Of Tropical Rain: Average Reflectivity Vertical Profiles Determined By Rain Top Height, Reuven H. Heiblum, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, Alexander Kostinski

Department of Physics Publications

Sixteen years of Tropical Rain Measuring Mission (TRMM) reflectivity profile data are collected for oceanic, continental, and island tropical regions within the boreal winter intertropical convergence zone (ITCZ). When sorted by the rain top height (RTH), a consistent behavior emerges where the average reflectivity profiles originating at different RTHs form non-overlapping manifolds in the height–reflectivity space, excluding the brightband regions for stratiform type profiles. Based on reflectivity slope (dBZ km⁻¹) profile characteristics and physical considerations, the profiles are divided into three classes: 1) cold profiles, which originate above the −20°C isotherm height and display convergence to a …