is apparent moving inland. Southern continental regions
exhibited a more apparent warm-rain signature, whereas
the northern continental regions exhibited a signature more
dependent upon ice-based microphysics.
Tighter grouping of AEW phase distributions was
observed over oceanic regions, suggesting that system
structure displayed greater homogeneity than observed
inland. Convective distributions showed looser groupings
across AEW phases than stratiform distributions in
every continental (and coastal) region. This suggests that
greater variability in convective microphysical structure was
present. As mentioned previously, convective contributions
dominated IWC, and to a lesser extent LWC, profiles.
Additionally, steeper slopes in the oceanic and coastal
distributions indicate a narrower range of ice and water
mass fractions in these regions, whereas over the continent
a greater spectrum of ice and water fractions was possible.
The southerly and ridge AEW phase systems produced
more frequent higher IWP fractions in continental regions.
This suggests that stronger updraughts existed during this
phase, confirmed by higher MSH and 30 dBZ heights.
Stratiform fractions shown in Figure 5 indicate a lower
occurrence of large stratiform fraction in the continental
regions during the southerly and ridge AEW regimes, while
the trough phase displayed opposite characteristics: lower
IWP fraction, higher LWP fraction, and higher occurrence
of larger stratiform fractions. Fundamental differences in