We investigate the global distribution of hourly precipitation and its connections with the El Niño–Southern Oscillation (ENSO) using both satellite precipitation estimates and the global sub-daily rainfall gauge dataset. Despite limited moisture availability over continental surfaces, we find that the highest mean and extreme hourly precipitation intensity (HPI) values are mainly located over continents rather than over oceans, a feature that is not evident in daily or coarser resolution data. After decomposing the total precipitation into the product of the number of wet hours (NWH) and HPI, we find that ENSO modulates total precipitation mainly through the NWH, while its effects on HPI are more limited. The contrasting responses to ENSO in NWH and HPI is particularly apparent at the rising branches of the Pacific and Atlantic Walker Circulations, and is also notable over land-based gauges in Australia, Malaysia, the USA, Japan and Europe across the whole distribution of hourly precipitation (i.e. extreme, moderate and light precipitation). These results provide new insights into the global precipitation distribution and its response to ENSO forcing.

我们使用卫星降水估计和全球次日降水量数据集，调查了每小时降水的全球分布及其与厄尔尼诺-南方涛动（ENSO）的联系。尽管大陆表面的水分供应有限，但我们发现最高的平均和最高每小时降水强度（HPI）值主要位于大陆而不是海洋之上，这一特征在每日或更高分辨率的数据中并不明显。将总降水量分解为湿小时数（NWH）和HPI的乘积后，我们发现ENSO主要通过NWH调节总降水量，而其对HPI的影响更为有限。在太平洋和大西洋沃克环流上升的分支中，西北太平洋地区和HPI对ENSO的反差尤为明显，而且在每小时的整个小时分配中，澳大利亚，马来西亚，美国，日本和欧洲的陆基仪表也很明显降水（即极端，中等和轻微降水）。这些结果为全球降水分布及其对ENSO强迫的响应提供了新的见解。