Aircraft Measurements of the Microphysical Properties of Stratiform Clouds with Embedded Convection

The presence of embedded convection in stratiform clouds strongly affects ice microphysical properties and precipitation formation.In situ aircraft measurements,including upward and downward spirals and horizontal penetrations,were performed within both embedded convective cells and stratiform regions of a mixedphase stratiform cloud system on 22 May 2017.Supercooled liquid water measurements,particle size distributions,and particle habits in different cloud regions were discussed with the intent of characterizing the riming process and determining how particle size distributions vary from convective to stratiform regions.Significant amounts of supercooled liquid water,with maxima up to 0.6 g m−3,were observed between−3℃ and−6℃ in the embedded convective cells while the peak liquid water content was generally less than 0.1 g m−3 in the stratiform regions.There are two distinct differences in particle size distributions between convective and stratiform regions.One difference is the significant shift toward larger particles from upper−15℃ to lower−10℃ in the convective region,with the maximum particle dimensions increasing from less than 6000μm to over 1 cm.The particles larger than 1 cm at−10℃ are composed of dendrites and their aggregates.The other difference is the large concentrations of small particles(25–205μm)at temperatures between−3℃ and−5℃ in the convective region,where rimed ice particles and needles coexist.Needle regions are observed from three of the five spirals,but only the cloud conditions within the convective region fit into the Hallett-Mossop criteria.

Simulations of Microphysics and Precipitation in a Stratiform Cloud Case over Northern China:Comparison of Two Microphysics Schemes

Using the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model with two different microphysics schemes,the Predicted Particle Properties(P3)and the Morrison double-moment parameterizations,we simulated a stratiform rainfall event on 20–21 April 2010.The simulation output was compared with precipitation and aircraft observations.The aircraft-observed moderate-rimed dendrites and plates indicated that riming contributed significantly to ice particle growth at the mature precipitation stage.Observations of dendrite aggregation and capped columns suggested that aggregation coexisted with deposition or riming and played an important role in producing many large particles.The domain-averaged values of the 24-h surface precipitation accumulation from the two schemes were quite close to each other.However,differences existed in the temporal and spatial evolutions of the precipitation distribution.An analysis of the surface precipitation temporal evolution indicated faster precipitation in Morrison,while P3 indicated slower rainfall by shifting the precipitation pattern eastward toward what was observed.The differences in precipitation values between the two schemes were related to the cloud water content distribution and fall speeds of rimed particles.P3 simulated the stratiform precipitation event better as it captured the gradual transition in the mass-weighted fall speeds and densities from unrimed to rimed particles.

Microphysical characteristics of precipitating cumulus cloud based on airborne Ka-band cloud radar and droplet measurements

Based on cloud-probe data and airborne Ka-band cloud radar data collected in Baoding on 5 August 2018,the microphysical structural characteristics of cumulus(Cu)cloud at the precipitation stage were investigated.The cloud droplets in the Cu cloud were found to be significantly larger than those in stratiform(STF)cloud.In the Cu cloud,most cloud particles were between 7 and 10μm in diameter,while in the STF cloud the majority of cloud particles grew no larger than 2μm.The sensitivity of cloud properties to aerosols varied with height.The cloud droplet effective radius showed a negative relationship with the aerosol number concentration(Na)in the cloud planetary boundary layer(PBL)and upper layer above the PBL.However,the cloud droplet concentration(Nc)varied little with decreased Na in the high liquid water content region above 1500 m.High Na values of between 300 and 1853 cm-3 were found in the PBL,and the maximum Na was sampled near the surface in August in the Hebei region,which was lower than that in autumn and winter.High radar reflectivity corresponded to large FCDP(fast cloud droplet probe)particle concentrations and small aerosol particle concentrations,and vice versa for low radar reflectivity.Strong updrafts in the Cu cloud increased the peak radius and Nc,and broadened cloud droplet spectrum;lower air temperature was favorable for particle condensational growth and produced larger droplets.

Observational Evidence of High Ice Concentration in a Shallow Convective Cloud Embedded in Stratiform Cloud over North China

In this study we observed the microphysical properties, including the vertical and horizontal distributions of ice particles,liquid water content and ice habit, in different regions of a slightly supercooled stratiform cloud. Using aircraft instrument and radar data, the cloud top temperature was recorded as higher than -15℃, behind a cold front, on 9 September 2015 in North China. During the flight sampling, the high ice number concentration area was located in the supercooled part of a shallow convective cloud embedded in a stratiform cloud, where the ambient temperature was around -3℃. In this area,the maximum number concentrations of particles with diameter greater than 100 μm and 500 μm（N_（100） and N_（500）） exceeded 300 L-（-1） and 30 L-（-1）, respectively, and were related to large supercooled water droplets with diameter greater than 24 μm derived from cloud–aerosol spectrometer probe measurements. The ice particles types in this region were predominantly columnar, needle, graupel, and some freezing drops, suggesting that the occurrence of high ice number concentrations was likely related to the Hallett–Mossop mechanism, although many other ice multiplication processes cannot be totally ruled out.The maximum ice number concentration obtained during the first penetration was around two to three orders of magnitude larger than that predicted by the Demott and Fletcher schemes when assuming the cloud top temperature was around-15℃.During the second penetration conducted within the stratiform cloud, N_（100） and N_（500） decreased by a factor of five to ten, and the presence of columnar and needle-like crystals became very rare.

Evaluation of the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) Microphysics Scheme in Simulations of Stratiform Clouds with Embedded Convection

To evaluate the ability of the Predicted Particle Properties(P3)scheme in the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model,we simulated a stratiform rainfall event over northern China on 22 May 2017.WRF simulations with two P3 versions,P3-nc and P3-2ice,were evaluated against rain gauge,radar,and aircraft observations.A series of sensitivity experiments were conducted with different collection efficiencies between ice and cloud droplets.The comparison of the precipitation evolution between P3-nc and P3-2ice suggested that both P3 versions overpredicted surface precipitation along the Taihang Mountains but underpredicted precipitation in the localized region on the leeward side.P3-2ice had slightly lower peak precipitation rates and smaller total precipitation amounts than P3-nc,which were closer to the observations.P3-2ice also more realistically reproduced the overall reflectivity structures than P3-nc.A comparison of ice concentrations with observations indicated that P3-nc underestimated aggregation,whereas P3-2ice produced more active aggregation from the self-collection of ice and ice-ice collisions between categories.Efficient aggregation in P3-2ice resulted in lower ice concentrations at heights between 4 and 6 km,which was closer to the observations.In this case,the total precipitation and precipitation pattern were not sensitive to riming.Riming was important in reproducing the location and strength of the embedded convective region through its impact on ice mass flux above the melting level.