TROPICAL PRECIPITATION STUDIES USING A 915-MHZ WIND PROFILER

Precipitation echoes obtained with 915-MHz wind profilers operated in the tropics provide useful information on the structure of precipitati ng cloud systems. This paper examines the sensitivity of the 915-MHz p rofiler to precipitation. Observations of precipitation echoes at Manu s Island, Papua New Guinea, illustrate profiler performance capabiliti es for observing several types of tropical convective systems. Special attention is given to the occurrence of deep precipitating clouds whi ch are often present without rain at the surface. Analyses of profiler data from Manus Island show that over a 10-month period, deep precipi tating clouds were present more than 25% of the time. The importance o f the deep precipitating clouds to the heat budget of the tropical atm osphere is briefly discussed.