4. 25N 30N 65E75E65E75E65E75E 2010 2011 2012 16 0 Height (km) 8 Distance (km) 287 0232 0241 0

5. These storms are Mesoscale Convective Systems “MCSs”

6. Large areas of cold top Example outbreak of MCSs

7. 1458GMT 13 May 2004 Convective Precipitation Stratiform Precipitation Radar echoes showing the precipitation in the 3 MCSs

8. TRMM and CloudSat radars & other data have helped us map MCS occurrence globally

9. Convective component Stratiform component Extreme characteristic Contiguous 3D volume of convective echo > 40 dBZ TRMM Radar Distinguishes Convective and Stratiform Components of MCSs

10. Continents

11. Deep Convective Cores Broad Stratiform Regions JJASDJF Wide Convective Cores South Asia & South America

12. Deep Convective Cores Broad Stratiform Regions Wide Convective Cores Africa

13. Oceans

14. TRMM Radar Observations of the MJO over the Indian Ocean Phase 7 Active PhaseSuppressed Phase Deep Convective Cores Broad Stratiform Rain Areas

15. The A-Train Era

16. Details learned from field projects

17. Basic components Houze et al. 1989 Anvil Raining core Cold top A-Train sees all of this!

18. How A-Train sees the whole MCS 1 2 3

19. The Anvil Problem Extensively studied Need to understand how anvil is related to the raining region Mesoscale Convective System

20. Statistics of anvil width & thickness seen by CloudSat Yuan and Houze 2010 AfricaIndian Ocean

21. Yuan, Houze, and Heymsfield 2011 AfricaIndian Ocean Internal structure of MCS anvils

22. Combining cloud top and raining cores

23. 260K Closed contour Rain Heavy rain Identify High Cloud Systems (HCSs) Connected HCSs Separated HCS

24. Which HCSs are MCSs? Yuan and Houze 2010

25. PDF of rain amount as a function of raining core properties Size of raining core Min TB11 over raining core 2000 km 2 220 °K  56% all tropical rain Using these values for “MCS” criteria Yuan and Houze 2010

26. MCSs Over the Whole Tropics Smallest 25% (<12,000 km 2 ) Largest 25% (>40,000 km 2 ) “Superclusters” Yuan and Houze 2010

27. Indian Ocean MCSs Contribution to Rainfall by phase of the Madden- Julian Oscillation Yuan and Houze 2012 Connected MCSs Separated MCSs Other high cloud systems ActiveSuppressed

28. Composite MCS Lightning Determined from WWLLN Separated West PacificEq. AfricaEq. AtlanticArgentina Connected

29. Composite MCS Lightning in the MJO Separated Separated SUPPRESSED ACTIVE

32. CloudSat applied to MCS anvils

33. Internal structure of MCS anvils CV CV Indian Ocean Anvils

34. MODIS/AMSR-E  identifies cold top  locates the raining core  remainder is anvil Anvil Raining core Cold top

35. Frequency of MCS anvils over tropics Yuan and Houze 2010