Spectral retrieval of latent heating profiles from TRMM PR data. Part I: Development of a model-based algorithm

An algorithm, the spectral latent heating (SLH) algorithm, has been developed to estimate latent heating profiles for the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission precipitation radar with a cloud-resolving model (CRM). Heating-profile lookup tables for the three rain types-convective, shallow stratiform, and anvil rain ( deep stratiform with a melting level)-were produced with numerical simulations of tropical cloud systems in the Tropical Ocean and Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment. For convective and shallow stratiform regions, the lookup table refers to the precipitation-top height (PTH). For the anvil region, on the other hand, the lookup table refers to the precipitation rate at the melting level instead of PTH. A consistency check of the SLH algorithm was also done with the CRM-simulated outputs. The first advantage of this algorithm is that differences of heating profiles between the shallow convective stage and the deep convective stage can be retrieved. This is a result of the utilization of observed information, not only on precipitation type and intensity, but also on the precipitation depth. The second advantage is that heating profiles in the decaying stage with no surface rain can also be retrieved. This comes from utilization of the precipitation rate at the melting level for anvil regions.