Atmospheric stability estimation using radio occultation data over India and surrounding region

Abstract

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The paper presents analysis of occurrence and intensity of rainfall with the lifted index (LI), total precipitable water (TPW), average relative humidity (ARH) and average refractivity (RI) derived from radio occultation (RO) data. Constellation Observing System has been used for meteorology, ionosphere and climate (COSMIC) refractivity and 1-d variational assimilation retrievals of pressure, temperature and water vapour pressure during May-August 2007 over India and the surrounding region. The results mainly indicate that RO data can be a sensitive measure of rainfall. LI, TPW and ARH together are linked to give 90% probability of occurrence of rainfall events. Almost similar probability of rainfall occurrence and its intensity is captured when RI is used in place of LI. The results emphasize that RO average refractivity (above a certain threshold) is a measure of instability of the atmosphere and can be used as stability index instead of LI. RI in combination with moisture indices is able to give potential signature of rainfall occurrence and its intensity.

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