Articles | Volume 12
https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-12-19-2007
https://doi.org/10.5194/adgeo-12-19-2007
27 Jun 2007
27 Jun 2007

Two case studies of severe storms in the Mediterranean using AMSU

B. M. Funatsu, C. Claud, and J.-P. Chaboureau

Abstract. Mediterranean storms and their associated upper level features are diagnosed here using Advanced Microwave Sounding Unit (AMSU) observations. AMSU-A channel 8 is used to identify upper-level intrusions of stratospheric air, which are often present upstream of heavy precipitating areas, while a combination of AMSU-B channels 3 and 5 is chosen to discriminate moderate to heavily precipitating areas. This precipitation detection method provides results that are in good agreement with TRMM rainfall product and independent ground-based precipitation data. These tools allow us to follow the concomitant evolution of two severe rainfall events in the Mediterranean region and associated upper-level features.

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