Lecture 5

Rainfall and clouds in the tropics

•  The most important facet of weather and
climate in a tropical region such as
ours, is rainfall. In order to understand
the relationship between rainfall, winds
& pressure we need to first understand
how we get rain in the tropics and
discuss what we know about the rain-
giving systems.
We get rain from clouds. A cloud is
defined as a visible aggregate of minute
particles of water or ice, or both, in the
free air. Thus, whereas in the
atmosphere, water occurs as vapour,
clouds are characterized by the
occurrence of liquid or solid phases of
water.
•  Most of the rain over the tropical regions
comes from the so called convective (i.e.,
Cumulus and Cumulonimbus) clouds.
Cumulus is a Latin word for a heap or a
pile, and cumulus clouds are generally
dense with sharp outlines, developing
vertically in the form of rising mounds,
domes or towers of which the bulging part
often resembles a cauliflower.
•  The sunlit parts of these clouds are
brilliantly white, their base is relatively
dark and horizontal.
•  Cumulus clouds are normally less than a
kilometer in horizontal and vertical extent
in their early stage of development. Most
of them do not grow any larger,
particularly when isolated. These are the
fair-weather cumulus we see frequently,
arranged in rows.
•  A large cumulus cloud (Cumulus
congestus) consists of a heap of rapidly
fluctuating bulbous towers which give it
its cauliflower like appearance.
 Cumulonimbus
Cumulus
Congestus

Distribution of ice
and water in a
cumulonimbus
cloud
•  Cumulonimbus (nimbus means
precipitating) which is an advanced stage
of the development of cumulus cloud, is a
heavy and dense cloud with considerable
vertical extent, in the form of huge towers.
•  The tops are very high (well over 10km)
and generally contain ice. These rain-
giving clouds are typically a few
kilometers in horizontal extent. In the
summer months of April and May we often
get rain accompanied by thunder and
sometimes also hail, from isolated clouds
of this type.
 Clouds
I consider next the processes that lead to
cumulus clouds in a tropical atmosphere.
The most important component of the
atmosphere for clouds is water vapour.

Water vapour in air

The amount of water vapour in the air
decreases with height as it is supplied to
the atmosphere through evaporation
from the sea-surface.
•  We are primarily concerned with the
troposphere here, because it contains
nearly all of the water and hence the
clouds in the atmosphere.
•  The ratio of the mass of water vapour in
air in a given volume to the total mass
of the moist air in that volume is called
the specific humidity of the air.
•  Another important measure is the
relative humidity which expresses the
actual moisture content of a sample of
air as a percentage of that contained in
the same volume of saturated air at the
same temperature.
•  The amount of water vapour air can
hold depends on the temperature of the
air. Warmer air can hold more than
colder air. Thus for the same amount of
water vapour, the relative humidity of a
cooler parcel is higher than that of a
warmer parcel.
•  The air near the surface of the tropical
oceans is moist but rarely saturated,
with the relative humidity generally
around 80%.
•  Since clouds contain liquid water,
genesis of clouds involves a phase
change of the water vapour present in
the atmosphere. Such a change would
occur when the air becomes saturated
(i.e., relative humidity of 100%).
•  The relative humidity of air increases if
air cools. Generally such an increase in
relative humidity occurs when air
ascends and cools.
•  Adiabatic ascent: To understand how
ascent leads to cooling, consider what
happens to a parcel of moist air which is
made to rise adiabatically (i.e., without
giving it any additional energy) from a
level A to a higher level, B. It will
expand, because the pressure is lower
at the level B
 Consider a parcel of moist air which is made to rise
adiabatically from a level A to a higher level, B. It will
expand, because the pressure is lower at the level B

A
The parcel will cool because this
expansion is adiabatic i.e., at the
expense of its own internal energy. If
the parcel is dry, cooling associated
with adiabatic ascent is at the rate of
about 10o C per km.
 However, the lapse rate of the temperature of
the air surrounding the parcel is about 6o C
per km as seen in the observed temperature
profiles over the Bay and Arabian Sea.

Lapse rate:
Temp diff/height diff=
about 300C/5km =60C/km
•  Hence, a dry parcel will be cooler and
denser than its environment when it
ascends adiabatically. Consequently, it
will return to the lower level as it is
acted on by a restoring buoyancy force.
•  Thus the tropical atmosphere is stable
respect to vertical displacement of dry
air.
•  However, if we consider a moist parcel
which is lifted adiabatically, as it cools,
the saturation vapour pressure
decreases i.e. relative humidity
increases.
•  If such a parcel is lifted to a certain
level (depending on the humidity of the
parcel at the start), it becomes
saturated, i.e., relative humidity
becomes 100%.
•  If the parcel is pushed up adiabatically
beyond this level, which is called the
level of lifting condensation, water
vapour is converted to liquid water, and
latent heat of condensation is released.
•  This prevents it from cooling as rapidly
as a dry parcel and in fact it cools at the
rate of about 4.5o C per km which is
lower than the environmental lapse rate
of about 6o C per km. Hence it finds itself
warmer than the environment and is
accelerated upward because of the
buoyancy force.
Thus the tropical atmosphere is unstable
with respect to vertical displacement of
moist air beyond the lifting condensation
level. However, we have seen that it is
stable with respect to vertical
displacement of dry air. Hence the tropical
atmosphere is said to be conditionally
unstable.
Thus the tropical atmosphere is unstable
with respect to upward displacement of
moist air parcels, beyond the level of
saturation. Cumulus clouds are a
manifestation of the gravitational
instability and convective overturning in
an atmosphere whose lowermost layer is
moist.
I consider first, an elegant treatment of
this instability to identify the typical
horizontal scale of the cumulus clouds
by one of the greatest minds in the
field- J Bjerknes: Saturated adiabatic
ascent of air through dry-adabatically
descending environment, Quar. J. R.
Met. Soc., Vol.64, p.275, pp.325.330,
1938.
•  We expect that the mode/scale we will
observe as a result of the instability
process is the one that is the most
efficient in tapping the conditional
instability and hence has the fastest rate
of growth.
•  If the cumulus cloud is indeed a
manifestation of the conditional
instability of the tropical atmosphere,
then convection with ascent of air over
regions of the cumulus-scale (of a few
km) has to be favoured over the larger
scales in the presence of conditional
instability.
• 
•  Bjerknes first suggested how the cumulus
scale would be selected for, in a
conditionally unstable tropical atmosphere.
•  Consider a cloud extending over a
horizontal area ‘a’. We assume that dry air
surrounding the cloud descends through
the atmosphere over the surrounding
region to maintain the mass balance.
Conservation of mass requires that the
ascent of air over ‘a’ has to be balanced by
descent over the surrounding region, which
has an area ‘A’.
•  Hence w, the velocity of ascent in the
cloud is related to ‘W’ the velocity of
descent in the surrounding region by
aw=AW.
•  Air rising in the cloud gains heat from the
release of latent heat of condensation and
loses heat because of adiabatic
expansion, the rates of heating being
dependent on the velocity of ascent, w.
•  Since the tropical atmosphere is stable
with respect to vertical displacements of
dry air, work has to be done against
gravity to force the descent of the dry air
in the surrounding region. Thus, the
buoyancy forces in the cloud have to do
work to return the air pumped up by the
cloud, to the surface.
•  Consider a set of clouds of varying
horizontal extent, with the same quantity
of air involved in the vertical circulation
for each member of the set.
•  The smallest cloud (with smallest value of
the ratio a/A) is associated with the
maximum ascent velocity, w, of air in the
cloud and the minimum velocity of
descent, W, in the surrounding region.
•  It can be shown* that the ratio of the work
done in the downward flow in the cloud-
free region to the energy released by the
buoyancy forces in the cloud is minimum
for the cloud with maximum velocity of
ascent and minimum area.

•  *J G Charney, Planetary Fluid Dynamics in

Dynamic Meteorology, P Morel D Reidel
rel, ed., pp. 337.343, 1973.
•  Thus the smallest horizontal scale of
ascent is most efficient in tapping the
instability and will be selected for.
•  Recent studies* suggest that over that
large fraction of the tropical atmosphere
which is cloudfree, descent occurs
because of the radiative cooling of air
which balances the heating associated
with adiabatic compression.
•  *G S Bhat,1998 The dependence of cloud mass
flux and area cover on convective and large
scale processes, J. Atmos. Sci., pp.
2993-2999,and references therein
 Thus, the descent of air around the clouds
does not have to be driven by the
buoyancy forces in the clouds working
against gravity in a stable atmosphere as
proposed by Bjerknes . Rather, the
downward flux of the air subsiding over a
large part of the tropics due to radiative
cooling is compensated by the pumping
up of the air from the surface to the top of
the troposphere by the deep clouds.
In any event, the argument that the
smallest scale will be selected holds in
this case as well.
•  Note that, the selection for the cloud with
the smallest area, holds only for an
idealized fluid in which viscosity is
ignored, so that the parcel of air rises
without entrainment of surrounding air.
•  In a real atmosphere the cloud will entrain
air from the surrounding environment.
Since this air is entrained at the
boundaries of the cloud, the rate of
entrainment (as a percentage of mass
increase) will depend on the ratio of the
boundary to the volume. For a cylindrical
cloud this ratio per unit depth will be 2/
radius.
•  Thus the thinnest clouds have the highest
ratio of surface to volume and will
therefore have the most severe
constraints of growth when effects of
entrainment of the surrounding air due to
viscosity are incorporated.
•  However, it is known that these effects will
not be important for horizontal scales
much larger than the depth of the
troposphere (Benard convection).
•  Thus, the selected scale of the cloud in a
real atmosphere is not vanishingly thin, but
of the order of 10 km. The typical horizontal
extent of a cumulonimbus cloud observed
in the tropical atmosphere is about 5 km
and the typical life-span is about an hour.
•  Note that clouds can form when the moist
air near the surface of the earth is lifted up
to a level at which it can get saturated i.e.
lifting condensation level and water
vapour in the air begins to condense.
•  Thus vertical ascent of the moist air near
the surface is a necessary (but not
sufficient) condition for clouds and hence
rainfall.
Rain systems: synoptic scale
disturbances, cloud systems
 Synoptic  scale  Systems  
•  Monsoon meteorologists have known for a
long time that most of the rainfall during
the summer monsoon occurs in
association with synoptic scale systems
known as lows, depressions and cyclonic
storms depending on the intensity.
•  These systems are identified on weather
charts by closed isobars such as the low
seen in the next slide. The rainfall over the
east coast, in association with this low is
also seen.
•  The circulation around the low is cyclonic.
• 
Synoptic charts 0300GMT 4 August 1964
•  If the low intensifies such that the surface
wind in the cyclonic circulation are between
17 and 27 knots (i.e. 8.75-14 m/sec), it is called
a depression (e.g. next slide) and between 28
to 33 knots a deep depression. Depressions in
which the wind speed exceeds 17.5m/sec and
24.7m/sec are called cyclonic and severe
cyclonic storms respectively.
•  Thus, lows, depressions and cyclonic storms
are cyclonic vortices with increasing levels of
intensity.
Synoptic charts 0300GMT 5 August 1964
Synoptic charts 0300 GMT 6August 1964
Synoptic charts 0300 GMT
29 July 1967

Synoptic charts 0300 GMT 29 July 1967

Synoptic chart 4 October 1955 03 GMT.
•  Tropical cyclones, called hurricanes over
the Atlantic and Typhoons over the Pacific
are even more intense (with winds> 32m/
sec). Their special feature is the ‘eye’ with
no clouds and rain, over the minimum
pressure region. They are called very
severe cyclonic storms over the Indian
seas (super cyclonic storms when the
winds exceed 60m/sec). They generally
occur over the Indian seas in the post-
monsoon season and sometimes in the
pre-monsoon season
 Cloud systems  
•  With the advent of satellites it became possible to
literally see the cloud systems. Generally, the
satellite picture of the tropical region on any day
shows that, the convective clouds (typically a few
kms in horizontal extent) are organized into
systems of larger spatial extent ranging from
meso-scale (with horizontal scales of up to
100kms ), synoptic scale systems (with
horizontal scales of hundreds of kms) and
planetary scale cloud-bands extending over
thousands of kms.
•  Often the synoptic scale systems such as lows,
depressions etc, contain several meso-scale
systems and synoptic scale systems are often
embedded in planetary scale cloud bands.
The intense blobs embedded in the planetary scale cloud
band are synoptic scale systems as seen in the next slide
A zonal (east-west) cloud band over the Indian region is
seen on an active monsoon day (8July1973)
•  Synoptic scale systems are clearly seen in the
the satellite picture showing the cloud systems
(next slide) on a rainy day ( 16August 2006)
during the monsoon.
•  The weather map for the same day with isobars
for the surface pressure and winds at 1.5 kms (i.e.
above the boundary layer) is shown in the
following slide. It is seen that the cloud systems
are associated with synoptic disturbances, in this
case a low and a depression.
Satellite picture for 16 August 2006. Colours indicate the height of
the radiating surfaces (cloud top, when there are clouds). White is
for minimum temperature (i.e. maximum height of the cloud top),
green for somewhat higher temperature (shallower clouds) and red
is generally cloud free.
 Weather map for
16 August 2006.

The isobars of the surface pressure are marked. Note the

depression off the coast of Orissa over the head of the Bay of
Bengal. The symbol of a stick with teeth indicates the direction of
the wind (wind at 1.5 km above the surface). The wind is along
the direction of the stick blowing from the side where the teeth are.
Wind speed increases with the number and size of the teeth.
•  Note that above the boundary layer i.e. at 850 hpa,
the vorticity associated with all the synoptic
disturbances is cyclonic. Hence, they are
associated with convergence of the moist air in the
boundary layer (because of the special
characteristic of boundary layers in rotating system
-last lecture) and ascent on top of the boundary
layer. This implies that clouds will be generated
and rainfall will occur due to this ascent over the
region of cyclonic vorticity. Naturally these have
been identified as rain systems.
•  In the upper atmosphere, these systems are
characterized by anticyclonic vorticity and
divergence (next slide)
 Composite depression:
horizontal and vertical variation of
tangential wind (m/sec) radial wind (m/sec)
Structure of a low
Geostrophic relative vorticity at 700hpa
 Variation with height at 180N 800 E of
Vertical velocity Divergence geostrophic relative voticity
•  The two features that need to be predicted about
synoptic disturbances is the intensification and
tracks. For the former, models are required.
•  There is a lot of empirical knowledge about the
tracks in different months. For example, the
tracks of the cyclonic storms (depressions, deep
depressions and cyclonic storms) during July
1891-1960 are shown in the next slide.
Comparison with the pressure pattern (also
shown) shows that the tracks are parallel to the
surface trough. The envelope of the tracks is the
monsoon zone.
•  The mean rainfall for July is highly
correlated with the number of
disturbances generated in each grid box
in about a hundred years (next slide). Most
of the synoptic scale disturbances are
generated over the head bay.
•  Even though considerable emphasis is
given to the study of depressions vis a vis
lows, Sikka (1980) showed that the
interannual variation of rainfall is related
to the number of lows and low days and
not to the number of the more intense
system viz. the depressions.
 Number of low pressure systems
Mean July rainfall in cm
forming in each grid during the
summer monsoon seasons of
1888-1983
INSAT 1D image showing the landfall of super cyclonic storm of 29 October
1999 near Paradip on Orissa Coast.
Typhoon on 1 Oct 2012