A Satellite‐Based Estimate of Convective Vertical Velocity and Convective Mass Flux: Global Survey and Comparison With Radar Wind Profiler Observations

Convective vertical velocity (w(c)) and convective mass flux (M-c) lie at the heart of global climate model cumulus parameterizations, but few observations of these critical parameters are available. This paper develops and evaluates a novel, satellite-based method for estimating profiles of w(c) and M-c. Comparisons with collocated ground-based radar wind profiler (RWP) observations show that satellite-estimated median w(c) is slightly greater than the RWP estimates, but they show solid agreement when compared at the 95th percentiles (intense updrafts). RWP-derived and satellite-estimated M-c are broadly comparable in the lower and middle troposphere, with some differences in the upper troposphere due to differences in convective core sampling. A k-means cluster analysis of multiple years of w(c) data shows that convective characteristics are distinctly different among extratropical convection, tropical land convection, and tropical oceanic convection. Tropical land convection is significantly more intense and more variable than the oceanic counterpart.