TRMM Observations of Intraseasonal Variability in Convective Regimes over the Amazon

This study utilizes the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) satellite precipitation radar (PR), lightning imaging sensor (LIS), and passive microwave imager (TMI) data together with ground-based lightning data to investigate the vertical structure, lightning, and rainfall characteristics of Amazonian and subtropical South American convection for three separate wet seasons. These characteristics are partitioned as a function of 850mb zonal wind direction, motivated by observations collected during the 6-week TRMM-Large-scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia (LBA) field campaign. The TRMM-LBA field campaign observations suggest that systematic variations in Amazonian convective vertical structure, lightning, and rainfall are all linked to bimodal variations in the low-level zonal wind (e.g., easterly and westerly regimes). The more spatially and temporally comprehensive TRMM dataset used in this study extends the TRMM-LBA observations by examining regime variability in Amazonian and South American convective structure over a continental-scale domain.