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The aim of this work was to reveal the differences in the macro- and microphysical characteristics and precipitation mechanisms of tropical precipitation systems (TPSs) in different regions. Based on the GPM satellite observation from 2014 to 2022, global TPSs were identified, and eight high-frequency areas were defined. Subsequently, their horizontal and vertical development, precipitation characteristics, and microphysical vertical structure were systematically analyzed. The results show that the horizontal development scale of TPSs is mostly between 104 and 105 km2, with vertical development exceeding 10 km. The convective area fraction (CAF) ranges from 20% to 60%, and TPSs have a higher CAF and lower vertical development over the ocean than over land. Continental TPSs exhibit significantly stronger vertical development and more intense precipitation in convective cores than oceanic TPSs. The stronger vertical development over land is mainly attributed to stronger updrafts associated with topographic lifting, which further enhances ice-phase microphysical processes and increases ice particle size. Meanwhile, the intensified updrafts also lead to higher collision–coalescence efficiency in the liquid layer, and temperature perturbations over land further enhance turbulent collision efficiency. Together, these processes result in stronger precipitation intensity in the convective cores of continental TPSs. Stratiform regions are characterized by weak precipitation dominated by raindrop breakup with small regional differences. These findings clarify the key land–ocean disparities in TPSs and provide critical observational evidence for optimizing cloud microphysical parameterization schemes in numerical models.
Chen et al. (Thu,) studied this question.