Latent Heating Properties of Cloud Regimes Determined by Cluster Analysis of Satellite and Model Data

The regime-averaged latent heating properties of several distinct cloud regimes of the tropical West Pacific are examined. Regimes are determined through k-means cluster analysis (Jakob and Tselioudis 2003) for both satellite and model data, and are based on joint histograms of cloud top pressure, cloud optical depth, and rainrate. Satellite observations use the MODIS and AMSR-E instruments onboard the Aqua satellite as well as cloud radar profiles from CloudSat. Cloud regimes effectively delineate the strength of convective activity in the region of interest. Regime-averaged properties and the progression with time of each regime provide insight into the mechanisms behind the tropical circulation and may prove useful for development of latent heat profile retrievals in the future.