Investigation of Mesoscale Convective Systems over Indonesian Maritime Continent using Geostationary Meteorological Satellite

Abstract

Variation of Mesoscale Convective Systems (MCSs) over Indonesian Maritime Continent (IMC) for 5 years in 2010-2014 were investigated using implementation of graph theory with hourly product from geostationary meteorological satellite infrared brightness temperature and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM) precipitation data. Variations of MCSs are analyzed based on six criteria of convective cloud organization derived from area, duration and eccentricity characteristics. The result shows that monthly average of six types of MCSs in the IMC region forms a bimodal pattern with two peaks at March to May (MAM) and September to November (SON). A statistical analysis exhibit a maximum frequency occurrence of six types of MCSs in the region of equatorial rainfall type, which amount of events up to 40%, where the greatest contribution concentrated in the Indian Ocean, Sumatra, Kalimantan, Sulawesi, and Papua. Diurnal pattern of MCSs in the IMC shows maturity time of MCSs mostly occurred in the evening to early morning. The typical occurrence of MCSs in this study is different compared to United States and China types, whereas IMC has balanced proportion amounts between linear and circular shape types, while United States and China region were dominated by linear type.