Global detection and analysis of coastline associated rainfall using an objective pattern recognition technique

TL;DR

This paper introduces a new objective pattern recognition technique to identify coastally associated rainfall from satellite data, revealing significant land-sea interaction effects on regional and global rainfall patterns, especially in the Maritime Continent.

Contribution

The study develops a novel method for detecting coastally influenced rainfall and demonstrates its application across multiple regions and climate variability modes, enhancing understanding of land-sea interactions.

Findings

40-60% of rainfall in key regions is linked to coastline effects

Coastal effects modulate rainfall during large-scale suppressed convection

The method can improve climate model evaluation and precipitation parametrization

Abstract

Coastally associated rainfall is a common feature especially in tropical and subtropical regions. However, it has been difficult to quantify the contribution of coastal rainfall features to the overall local rainfall. We develop a novel technique to objectively identify precipitation associated with land-sea interaction and apply it to satellite based rainfall estimates. The Maritime Continent, the Bight of Panama, Madagascar and the Mediterranean are found to be regions where land-sea interactions plays a crucial role in the formation of precipitation. In these regions $\approx$ 40% to 60% of the total rainfall can be related to coastline effects. Due to its importance for the climate system, the Maritime Continent is a particular region of interest with high overall amounts of rainfall and large fractions resulting from land-sea interactions throughout the year. To demonstrate the utility of our identification method we investigate the influence of several modes of variability, such as the Madden-Julian-Oscillation and the El Ni\~no Southern Oscillation, on coastal rainfall behavior. The results suggest that during large scale suppressed convective conditions coastal effects tend modulate the rainfall over the Maritime Continent leading to enhanced rainfall over land regions compared to the surrounding oceans. We propose that the novel objective dataset of coastally influenced precipitation can be used in a variety of ways, such as to inform cumulus parametrization or as an additional tool for evaluating the simulation of coastal precipitation within weather and climate models.