Goddard Cumulus Enble Model. Part II: Applications for Studying Cloud Precipitating Processes and for NASA TRMM

The response of cloud systems to their environment is an important link in a chain of processes responsible for monsoons, the Mei-Yu fro ntal depres sion, El Nino-Southern Oscillation (ENSO) episodes and other climate varia tions (e.g., 30-60 day intra-seasonal oscillations). Numerical models of cloud properties provide essential insights into the interactions of clouds with each other, with their surroundings, and with land and ocean surfaces. Significant advances are currently being made in the modeling ofrainfall and rain-related cloud processes (e.g., latent heat release), ranging in scales from the very small up to the simulation' of an extensive population of raining cumulus clouds in a tropical-or mid latitude-storm environment. Cloud models can also be used to convert the radiances received by cloud-observing microwave radiometers into rainfall rates. Remote sensing of cloud-top properties by high-flying aircraft bearing microwave and other instruments is now beginning to pro vide powerful tests of these models, particularly when these observations are augmented by simultaneous ground-based radar measurements.