Meteorol. Atmos. Phys.
78, 215225 (2001)
Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Institute of Science, Bangalore 560012, India
Diurnal variation of deep cloud systems
over the Indian region using INSAT-1B pixel data
A. V. Gambheer and G. S. Bhat
With 6 Figures
Received March 20, 2000
Revised October 3, 2000
Summary
Among the various time scales of deep clouds, diurnal
variation is found to be prominent over the tropics. The
present study examines the diurnal variation in the number
and area cover associated with the cloud systems over the
tropical Indian region using INSAT-1B pixel data. Three
periods, namely, AprilMay 1988, JulyAugust 1988, and
JanuaryFebruary 1989 are considered. The dependence of
diurnal characteristics on the temperature threshold, life
duration and size of cloud systems, and land-sea contrast has
been explored. The diurnal characteristics of cloud systems
living for more than a day have been studied for the rst
time. It is shown that cloud systems exhibit strong diurnal
dependence at the coldest temperature threshold used
(201 K). Also, the diurnal variation is more for larger cloud
systems and for longer living systems. In general, more deep
cloud activity is found from the satellite data during the pre-
dawn and early morning hours. Precipitation is enhanced
during morning to early noon hours. Further, using data from
a recent eld experiment, clear evidence of diurnal variation
in precipitation over the Bay of Bengal is also presented.
1. Introduction
Deep convective clouds are one of the major
phenomena associated with the tropical weather
systems. They play an important role in earth's
energy cycle, and are a primary source of fresh
water on land. Theoretical interests and practical
importance necessitate that we understand various
aspects of deep convective clouds, including their
space-time variations. Changes in deep convective
activity on diurnal to inter-annual time scales have
been observed. Among the various time scales of
tropical clouds, Diurnal Variation (DV) is one of
the prominent and perhaps the most fundamental
of all (Nitta and Sekine, 1994; Hall and von der
Haar, 1999). Frequently used parameters in the
study of DV are precipitation, large-scale hor-
izontal convergence (or vertical motion) and low
values of brightness temperature in satellite IR
imagery. Ruprecht and Gray (1976) were the rst
to use all these three parameters to document the
DV in convection over tropical Western Pacic
island stations. For the cloud clusters (identied
from satellite imagery) the mean rainfall in the
morning (07001200 LST) was more than twice
that in the evening (19002100 LST). For pre-
cipitation not associated with cloud-clusters, DV
was present, however, its extent was weak.
Ruprecht and Gray (1976) proposed that sub-
sidence differences associated with the different
cooling rates of the atmosphere between day and
night, and the response time of the atmosphere are
important factors in determining the time of
maximum convective activity.
Subsequent studies covering different parts of
the tropics around the globe have conrmed that
deep convection is favored during certain hours
of the day, however, the time of preferred or
maximum convection is not the same every-
where. Janowiak et al. (1994) observed that over
land, deep clouds are more frequent between
216 A. V. Gambheer and G. S. Bhat
18002100 LST and are independent of the IR-
brightness temperature threshold. Over the tropi-
cal oceans, the preferred time of occurrence of
deep clouds is pre-dawn hours or early morning;
the exact time, however, is temperature threshold
dependent with very cold clouds occurring earlier
than warmer clouds (Janowiak et al., 1994). Over
the GATE [GARP (Global Atmospheric Research
Program) Atlantic Tropical Experiment] area, the
time of maximum convection was in the afternoon
hours as opposed to the morning hours observed
over the Pacic warm pool region (Gray and
Jacobson, 1977). Over the Bay of Bengal and
Arabian Sea (North Indian Ocean), convection is
more active around noon and late afternoon (1200
to 1800 LST), while, early morning peaks are
more frequent over the tropical South Indian
Ocean (Rao and Rao, 1993). The North Indian
Ocean is surrounded by the land masses and the
basin width is small compared to the South Indian
Ocean, and is perhaps inuenced by the land to a
larger extent.
The studies on DV based on satellite data,
hitherto, can be put in two broad categories. In the
rst category, (called grid approach here) in which
a majority of studies fall, the behavior of cloudy
pixels in every grid box (typically 2:5  2:5 )
xed in space is studied (e.g., Duvel, 1989;
Hendon and Woodberry, 1993; Janowiak et al.,
1994). In the second category, (referred to as
systems approach here) individual cloud systems
in a region have been identied and followed
through their life cycle (Chen and Houze, 1997;
Machado et al., 1998; Hall and von der Haar,
1999). The systems approach has the advantage
that it is possible to understand the diurnal
characteristics of the clouds depending on the
time of their formation, life duration and size.
Several observational studies have shown that
deep convective clouds organized in some man-
ner, namely the Mesoscale Convective Systems
(MCSs), are important in the vertical transports of
energy, mass and momentum, and bulk of the
precipitation over the tropics is produced by them
(e.g., Houze, 1993). Therefore, it is important to
understand various aspects of MCSs, including
their DV characteristics. There is a broad agree-
ment that the amplitude of DV is weaker over
oceans than on land (e.g., Duvel, 1989; Hendon
and Woodberry, 1993). The systems approach has
shown that, over the oceans, systems of small size
and of short life duration form throughout the day
and have a little diurnal preference (Chen and
Houze, 1997), whereas, the largest 10% of the
mesoscale convective systems that contribute
about 30% of the total cloud area, exhibit
signicant DV (Hall and von der Haar, 1999).
If we examine the regions of the tropics covered
by the previous studies, Western Pacic warm
pool region is the most explored area (for example
Ruprecht and Gray, 1976; Gray and Jacobson,
1977; McBride and Gray, 1980; Murakami, 1983;
Chen and Houze, 1997; Sui et al., 1997; Hall and
von der Haar, 1999) followed by the Atlantic (e.g.,
Gray and Jacobson, 1977; McBride and Gray,
1980; Duvel, 1989). There are some studies that
cover almost the entire tropics (e.g., Short and
Wallace, 1980; Hendon and Woodberry, 1993;
Janowiak et al., 1994), however, the Indian region
is still poorly studied. The only study over the
Indian region using the geostationary satellite data
is that by Rao and Rao (1993) based on grid
approach. The authors are not aware of any study
on the diurnal variation characteristics of cloud
systems over the Indian region. The present study
is aimed at partially lling the gap that exists for
the Indian Ocean region.
The present study area is a special one because
of the large asymmetry in the land mass
distribution between the southern and northern
Indian Oceans, and the prominent northward
migration of convective zone during the northern
summer (Indian summer monsoon season). The
main objective of the present study is to examine
the diurnal variation of cloudiness over the
tropical Indian Ocean and the adjoining land
masses considering systems approach and using
the INSAT-1B geostationary satellite pixel data.
We have considered three periods, namely April
May 1988, JulyAugust 1988, and January
February 1989 for detailed analysis. The diurnal
modulation of systems living for more than a day
have been studied for the rst time.
2. Data and methodology
The present study is mainly based on the INSAT-
1B satellite data archived at the National Centre
for Atmospheric Research Boulder, Colorado,
U.S.A. Three hourly IR channel images are avail-
able for the period April 88 to March 89. The area
of interest is 30 S to 30 N and 40 E to 110 E
 Diurnal variation of deep cloud systems over the Indian region using INSAT-1B pixel data 217

Fig. 1. Study area. The contours refer to the number of cloud systems of life of at least 3 images in 2:5  2:5 boxes at 221 K
temperature threshold, a Formed, b Net (formed minus dissipated). A positive (negative) value in b indicates the excess
number of cloud systems formed (dissipated) compared to that dissipated (formed) in the grid box

(Fig. 1). The pixel resolution at the sub-satellite
point (74:5 ) is 22 km  22 km and we have
applied the area correction factor to account for
the curvature of earth's surface and satellite look
angle while calculating the actual area of other
pixels.
In the present study, a Cloud System (CS) is
dened as a set of connected pixels having their
IR-brightness temperature equal to or below the
specied threshold temperature. No restriction
on the shape of the system is imposed. It was
observed that CSs of size less than 10 pixels
contributed more than 50% to the total number of
systems but occupied less than 5% of the total
cloud area. On the other hand, for CSs of size
more than 10 pixels, the contribution to the total
cloud cover became important. Hence the mini-
mum size of CSs is xed as 10 pixels here. This
corresponds to a minimum area of 4840 km2 and
is comparable to the value of 5000 km2 used in
the study by Williams and Houze (1987). The
threshold temperatures used here are 201 K,
221 K, 241 K and 261 K. It is well known that
cirrus clouds have low IR values like deep con-
vective clouds but are distinguished by their low
albedo. While the simultaneous use of IR and
visible imagery enables more accurate identica-
tion of deep convective clouds, this procedure will
218 A. V. Gambheer and G. S. Bhat
limit the study to certain hours of the day and not
suitable for the study of diurnal variation. A case
study was carried out for the months of July 1988
and January 1989 to obtain a rough estimation of
the fraction of cirrus clouds in the study region.
For the images taken at 1130 LST and 1430 LST,
mean albedo was calculated for each CS dened
by the threshold temperature in 201 K to 261 K
range. It was observed that clouds dened by the
threshold temperature of 221 K and below had
average albedo more than 40% and were deep
convective clouds (Henderson-Sellers, 1984,
p. 212). At the threshold temperature of 231 K,
about 5% of the CSs had albedo below 40%, i.e.,
were likely to be cirrus clouds. At warmer thresh-
olds, more number of CSs had albedo below 40%,
however, their temperature was not low enough to
be cirrus clouds (very likely to be mid-level
stratus clouds). Majority of the results shown are
for 221 K CSs, which we believe are of deep
convective origin.
Deep convective clouds in the atmosphere exist
in a wide spectrum of time scales. Typical life of a
cumulonimbus cloud is about half an hour to one
hour and that of a thunderstorm is a few hours,
and the average life of larger MCSs is about 10
hours (Ludlam, 1980, chap. 8; Houze, 1993, p.
337). Therefore, with the present sampling time of
3 hours, some smaller CSs may not be seen at all,
and the life cycle of those living for less than 6
hours are poorly resolved. While short lived, small
sized CSs dominate the cloud population, it is
larger, long-living CSs (life  10 hours) that contri-
bute to overall cloud cover and total precipitation
(Houze, 1993, p. 337). Therefore, in the present
study, we have given more importance to longer-
living CSs.
An automatic algorithm to track the CSs (i.e.,
identifying related CSs in successive images) is
used. The present algorithm uses a search box
(Machado et al., 1998) and area overlap (Williams
and Houze, 1987) for cloud tracking and takes
into account the mergers and splits in CSs
(Gambheer and Bhat, 2000). In the present study,
when a large cloud system splits, the largest
among the split systems is retained as the main
successor and the rest are treated as new systems.
Similarly, when CSs merge to form a system, the
hierarchy of the largest system among the merged
CSs is continued and the rest are terminated. For
each CS, time of its formation in LST based on
the longitude of its centre of gravity, position and
area in successive images, and the time of dis-
sipation are documented. Here the centre of
gravity of CS is taken as the centre of gravity of
the area occupied by the CS in the image.
3. Results and discussions
As in other regions (e.g., Williams and Houze,
1987; Machado et al., 1998) CSs of life of short
duration and of small size dominate the popula-
tion in the study area. For example 3540% of the
CSs are seen in one image only (single frame
systems), i.e., have a life span of less than 6 hours,
and those lived for more than a day are com-
paratively a few (Gambheer and Bhat, 2000). In
order that very short lived CSs do not dominate
the results, CSs which are seen in at least 3
images, i.e., life more than 6 hours, are considered
here (Fig. 2a is an exception). It has been noted by
Chen and Houze (1997) that during the inactive
phase of Intra Seasonal Oscillation (ISO), spa-
tially small, short lived (13 hours) CSs dominate,
whereas, the active ISO phase is characterized by
spatially large, longer living convective systems.
Therefore, the CSs considered here for study are
expected to be associated with the active phase of
ISO in the region.
3.1 Regions of formation and dissipation
As stated earlier, we consider three periods,
namely AprilMay 1988, JulyAugust 1988, and
JanuaryFebruary 1989 for detailed analysis. At
rst, let us look at the preferred regions of for-
mation of CSs during these three periods. Figure
1a shows the number of CSs formed in
2:5  2:5 boxes at 221 K temperature threshold.
(The total number of CSs during every bimonthly
period is about 2000.) During AprilMay, more
systems are formed on or around the Indonesian
and Malaysian land masses. During JulyAugust
(peak Indian monsoon months), a large number of
CSs are formed near the coastal areas, over the
Indian sub-continent, and around 5 S. During
JanuaryFebruary, convection is mainly conned
to the South Indian Ocean. Thus, the JulyAugust
period is characterized by wide spread convection
over land mass and coastal areas and, January
February is characterized by the oceanic TCZ
(Tropical Convergence Zone). AprilMay period
 Diurnal variation of deep cloud systems over the Indian region using INSAT-1B pixel data
represents the transition between the two extremes
in the study area.
The study by Rao and Rao (1993) shows that
the time of maximum convective activity shifts
from around noon in the central Bay of Bengal to
evening and late evening over the Indian land
mass, a time lag of 6 to 9 hours. If this lag results
from the migration of convective systems (as
suggested by them), then the regions of formation
and dissipation of convective systems should be
well separated. Figure 1b shows the net number of
CSs (having life span of at least 6 hours) formed
in 2:5  2:5 boxes. It is seen that coastal areas
are generally regions of net formation during the
Indian summer monsoon. However, there are no
broad regions of net dissipation. Generally, the
regions of net formation and net dissipation are
randomly distributed, adjacent to one other sug-
gesting that most of the systems do not travel,
typically more than a couple of hundred kilo-
meters, before dissipating. Thus, while in some
specic locations and during certain periods the
DV may be inuenced by the migration/propaga-
tion of CSs formed elsewhere, the Bay of Bengal
does not show this tendency.
3.2 Number of CSs
First we present the DV of the total number of CSs
ignoring their life span (i.e., without tracking).
Figure 2a shows the DV of the total number of
CSs without tracking at four temperature thresh-
olds, namely 201 K, 221 K, 241 K and 261 K. The
number of CSs in every LST interval has been
normalized by the respective total number of CSs
at each temperature threshold so that the relative
variation stands out. The largest DV is observed at
201 K, i.e., for very cold clouds. For other thresh-
old temperatures, the DV is relatively weak,
particularly during JanuaryFebruary which is
dominated by oceanic CSs. Maximum number of
CSs at 201 K are observed between 0300 and
0600 LST and minimum number of CSs are found
during 09001800 hours LST. At warmer tem-
perature thresholds DV is weak, generally lesser
number of CSs are observed between 0900
1500 LST, and more number between 1500
2400 LST. The temperature threshold dependence
of the maximum convective activity using grid
approach has been observed over Atlantic and
Pacic oceans (Albright et al., 1985; Janowiak
219
et al., 1994). The DV of number of CSs also shows
temperature threshold dependence with the deep-
est CSs peaking later.
Figure 2b shows the DV of number of CSs of at
least 3 images duration at the temperature thresh-
old of 221 K. As before, the number in each LST
interval is normalized by the total number of CSs
in all bins. A decrease in the afternoon hours is
seen during all three periods of study. In Fig. 2b,
also, the extent of DV is weak, and a shift in the
time of occurrence of maximum number is seen
when compared to the untracked CSs at 221 K
temperature threshold. During AprilMay and
JulyAugust, the peak is observed between 1500
to 2100 LST in Fig. 2a whereas in Fig. 2b, the
corresponding time is late night or early morning
hours. The trends during JanuaryFebruary are
more or less similar in Fig. 2a and b.
CSs pass through a life cycle including growth
and decay stages, and their areas rarely remain
constant. In the present study area, it is observed
that about 10% of the systems of at least 3 image
life attained a size more than 400 pixels some time
during their life (at 221 K temperature threshold);
Figure 2c shows the DV of the number of such
CSs. (It may be noted here that during some stage
in their life, these CSs could have their size much
smaller than 400 pixels). It is observed from Fig.
2c that except for AprilMay period, there is no
signicant DV in the number of these systems.
An increase in the number of systems does not
necessarily mean that the corresponding area
occupied by them is also more. Figure 3a shows
the area occupied by CSs (normalized by the
average cloudy area) at 221 K at different LSTs.
A prominent peak is seen around 0300 and
0600 LST for all the three periods. During July
August, convection is wide spread over the land
mass and coastal regions (Fig. 1a) and a small
second peak around 15001800 LST signies
contribution of land and coastal-region CSs to
the total cloud cover.
The fractional area cover of CSs corresponding
to Fig. 2c is shown in Fig. 3b. In contrast to Fig.
2c, AprilMay period shows the least DV in Fig.
3b. For the other two periods, the area cover more
than doubles between 03000600 LST compared
to that between 18002100 LST. Thus, the area of
CSs attaining larger sizes exhibits signicant DV.
Although the present denition of CS is not the
same as that of Hall and von der Haar (1999), the
220 A. V. Gambheer and G. S. Bhat
present result supports the nding of Hall and von
der Haar (1999) that signicant DV is present at
larger sizes.
3.3 Land ocean contrast
Here, a CS is considered as a land (ocean) system
if its centre of gravity lies over land (ocean).
Fig. 2. Diurnal variation of the number of cloud
systems normalized by the total number of
systems in respective category; a Total number
including the single frame systems, b Cloud
systems of least 3 images lifespan at 221 K, c
Cloud systems attaining maximum size of at
least 400 pixels and of life of at least 3 images at
221 K
Figure 4a shows the time of formation (i.e., when
a CS is rst identied) and Fig. 4b, dissipation
(i.e., CS last recognized in an image) of land and
ocean CSs at 221 K. Land systems show larger DV
compared to that of ocean CSs. Maximum num-
ber of CSs over land formed between 15001800
LST for all the three periods. During AprilMay
and JanuaryFebruary, no systems that lasted for
 Diurnal variation of deep cloud systems over the Indian region using INSAT-1B pixel data
Fig. 3. Diurnal variation of cloud system's area at 221 K.
The cloud cover in each LST interval has been normalized
by the average daily cloud cover; a All cloud systems of life
of at least 3 images, b Cloud systems that attained maxi-
mum size of at least 400 pixels during their life and seen
in at least 3 images
at least 3 images form during certain hours in the
morning, which is not the case during the peak
monsoon months (JulyAugust). In general, there
is a tendency for more new systems to form be-
tween 15002400 LST over the ocean.
The time of dissipation of CSs also has a strong
diurnal cycle, especially over land except during
the monsoon months. Over the oceans, there is a
preference for 12001500 LST for dissipation,
and the land systems dissipate during early
morning (00000600 LST) and late evening.
3.4 DV of long living systems
It has been observed that strongest DV over the
oceans is mainly associated with the largest
10% of the mesoscale convective systems (Hall
and von der Haar, 1999). In our study region, the
correlation between the size of CSs and its life
span is positive and around 0.3 to 0.4 at 201 K
temperature threshold. At warmer temperature
thresholds the correlation is much weaker. The
221
correlation between size and life is positive
but generally weak in other regions too (e.g.,
Machado et al., 1998). Therefore, a larger CS
does not necessarily mean a longer living one. It
is important that we understand the diurnal char-
acteristics of long-living systems also. To our
knowledge no results on the DV characteristics
of CSs living for more than a day are reported
in the literature. We consider this next for the
Indian Ocean region.
In the present study region, majority of CSs at
201 K temperature threshold has maximum life
span of less than a day and only one or two CSs
during a month are found to live longer. On the
other hand, more than 50 CSs lived longer than a
day (long-living systems) during every month at
221 K, a reasonable number to study their DV.
It is found that the areas of these long-living
systems often increase and decrease several times
during their life span. The question is, are there
periods during the day when the number of long-
living CSs with increasing area outnumber those
with decreasing area and vice versa. For this, it
is convenient to consider the Fractional Area
Change (FAC) between two successive images
for every long-living CS. In order that only
signicant area changes are included in the
analysis, cases where absolute value of FAC is
at least 20% are considered here. Every such
increasing and decreasing area case is assigned a
1 and 1 value, respectively. These numbers
are added up for respective LST bins and the
results are shown in Fig. 5 along with the
respective total number of CSs. A positive net
growing number of CSs in Fig. 5 indicates the
excess number of CSs with growing area com-
pared to those with decreasing area.
The number of long-living systems does not
have much diurnal dependence. In contrast, their
area growth and decay has a signicant and
similar diurnal pattern for all three periods of
study. For example, out of 150160 CSs present
during JulyAugust and JanuaryFebruary, the
number of growing CSs exceeded the decaying
CSs by nearly 60 between 00000300 hours.
Majority of CSs have the area reduced between
06000900 LST and 15002100 LST, and around
noon, the number of growing and decaying cases
are almost equal. Thus 21000300 LST is a
highly favored period for the substantial growth
of long-living systems, and in general, day hours
are not favorable.
222 A. V. Gambheer and G. S. Bhat

Fig. 4. Diurnal variation of number of cloud systems of life of at least 3 images as regards to their time of a formation, b
dissipation. The number of cloud systems are normalized by the total number of cloud systems in each category

converging at low levels due to the large scale

Fig. 5. Diurnal modulation of long-living cloud systems.
The total number of long-living cloud systems in dashed
lines and the net number of cloud systems, (growing minus
deacying) whose fractional change in area exceeded 20% in
three hours in full lines
Among the results presented in this study, the
strongest DV is observed in Fig. 5 and it raises the
questions about the possible mechanisms respon-
sible for this behaviour. Several mechanisms have
been proposed to explain DV of clouds in general
(e.g., Hall and von der Haar, 1999 for a summary),
and the most appealing is the amount of mass
subsidence caused by the radiative cooling of the
atmosphere. During the day hours absorption of
short wave radiation by some constituents of
air partially compensates for its long-wave cool-
ing, thus reducing the net cooling rate of the
atmosphere compared to that during night. Sub-
sidence is stronger after sunset and more mass
converges at lower levels at night. The distribution
of the mass that converged at low levels among
several competing clouds is another important
factor in understanding Fig. 5. For example, if the
conditions are favorable for the formation of new
CSs, then the air converging in lower levels may
preferably go up in new clouds and the existing
clouds may start decaying. Another important
factor to be considered here is the DV of the
number of CSs. It is observed in Fig. 2 that the
number of CSs increases after 1500 LST. As
the number of CSs increases and the anvil areas
expand, the chances of merger of CSs are
enhanced. When CSs merge, large increase in
area can take place. We examined the times
of splits and mergers of CSs in general. It is
observed that more number of CSs split around
 Diurnal variation of deep cloud systems over the Indian region using INSAT-1B pixel data 223

06000900 LST and 15001800 LST, and mini-

mum splits occur between 21000300 LST. The
number of mergers peak between midnight and
0300 LST and minimum number of mergers occur
around 0600 LST. This is consistent with the area
change of CSs observed in Fig. 5.
Apart from increasing the chances of merger,
the formation of new CSs has another important
effect. All active deep convective CSs are charac-
terized by downdrafts (e.g., Houze, 1993, chap.
9). The amount of mass converging at low levels
due to convective downdrafts can become com-
parable to that of the subsidence caused by the
large-scale radiative cooling of the atmosphere
(Bhat, 1998). Therefore, as the number of CSs
increases, the associated downdrafts enhance the
low-level convergence. Once these systems decay,
convergence due to downdraft also decreases.
Thus, the increased cooling rate of the atmos-
phere after sunset, merger with other CSs,
unfavorable conditions for the formation of new
systems, convective downdrafts, all can lead to
growth in the areas of the existing CSs. These are Fig. 6. Cumulative rainfall starting from midnight measured
some possibilities at present and there is no simple over the Bay of Bengal during JulyAugust 1999. Days
way to test them or assess their relative impor- with more than 15 mm rainfall are identied
tance. The growth of the cloud areas during the
night hours is consistent with these arguments.
However, why areas of long-living systems convectively active during this period. Two syn-
decrease drastically in the early morning hours optic scale disturbances were seen at the northern
(between 0006 and 0009 LST) is not very clear location 17:5 N and 89 E during the experimen-
(i.e., why convergence should reduce when short tal period. Most of the precipitation was associated
wave radiation is not yet strong). with the active phase of ISO (active monsoon) and
the rainfall during the inactive phase of ISO (break
monsoon) was less than 5 mm per day. As the rainy
3.5 Precipitation
days are few, we show the rainfall time series on
So far, we have presented the DV pattern of the individual rainy days.
CSs over the Indian Ocean region based on INSAT- Figure 6a shows the cumulative rainfall for 24
1B geostationary satellite data. In contrast to the hours starting from mid night at the northern
Pacic and Atlantic Oceans, in situ observations position (17:5 N, 89 E). Clear preference for
available over the Indian Ocean away from the morning to noon hours for precipitation is seen
coast are very few. Observations were taken on in Fig. 6a, in particular, when the daily rainfall
board two research vessels in the Bay of Bengal at exceeded 20 mm. The salient feature of Fig. 6a is
17:5 N, 89 E and 13 N, 87 E during July the near absence of precipitation during 2200
August 1999 that included precipitation mea- 0400 LST even when the area was convectively
sured from an automatic rain gauge. The observa- active. For example, on 15 August, it started
tion positions were more than 500 kilometers raining around noon, followed by a lull in activity
away from the coast and the experiment provided between 22000700 LST and then picked up again
some limited data to study the DV pattern of in the morning of 16 August. Figure 6b shows the
precipitation over the central parts of the Bay of precipitation pattern at 13 N, 87 E (southern
Bengal. As already stated, JulyAugust are location). The total rainfall was low compared to
peak monsoon months and the Bay of Bengal is the northern location. Here, 09001400 LST is the
224 A. V. Gambheer and G. S. Bhat
most favoured time for rainfall. Except for one
occasion, no detectable rainfall was recorded
between 18000500 LST.
Thus, precipitation shows a clear diurnal
dependence with morning to early afternoon as
the most favoured time, somewhat similar to that
observed over the Pacic island stations by
Ruprecht and Gray (1976). Rao and Rao (1993)
have inferred from the study of satellite data that
convection peaks around noon and late afternoon
hours over the Bay of Bengal, and the present
precipitation results are consistent with their
observations. 21000400 LST is the least favoured
time for precipitation which happens to be the
most preferred time of deep convection if we
consider the cloud cover of the region as a whole
(Fig. 3). Thus, there appears to be substantial
spatial inhomogeneity in DV pattern within the
study area.
4. Conclusions
The DV of CSs over the tropical Indian Ocean
region has been studied for three periods, namely
AprilMay 1988, JulyAugust 1988, and Janu-
aryFebruary 1989 using INSAT-1B geostationary
satellite data. Main conclusions are:
(a) The largest DV of convective systems are
observed at the coldest temperature threshold
used, namely 201 K. The DV is weaker but
broadly similar at warmer thresholds of
221 K, 241 K and 261 K.
(b) The number of CSs (at 221 K) peaks in the
evening but the associated cloud cover
reaches a maximum during the pre-dawn
hours. About 10% of the systems that exceed
400 pixels size during their life show
signicant DV in area cover during the
monsoon months.
(c) The formation of CSs of life greater than 3
images is highly favored during 1500
1800 LST over land with 03001200 LST as
the most unfavorable period. CSs form at all
LSTs over the ocean with some preference for
late evening and early morning hours.
(d) The diurnal modulation of the areas of long-
living systems has been studied for the rst
time. It is observed that the nature of variation
is similar for all the three periods. The pre-
ferred time for the growth of the long-living
systems is 21000300 LST and maximum
decay takes places during 06000900 LST
and 15001800 LST.
(e) Over the central Bay of Bengal, precipitation
is preferred during morning to noon hours with
22000400 LST as the least favored period.
Acknowledgements
This work was supported by a grant from The Department of
Space and we thank the agency for the due support. We also
thank Prof. J. Srinivasan for many useful discussions and
suggestions. We thank Ms. Mala Bhat, C. P. Chandrashekhar
and J. V. S. Raju for their help in the collection and analysis
of the precipitation data.
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Authors' address: Prof. G. S. Bhat and A. V. Gambheer,
Centre for Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, Indian Insti-
tute of Science, Bangalore 560 012 India (E-mail: bhat@
caos.iisc.ernet.in)