Microphysical Processes of a Stratiform Precipitation Event over Eastern China:Analysis Using Micro Rain Radar data

Data collected using the micro rain radar(MRR) situated in Jinan city, eastern China, were used to explore the altitudinal and temporal evolution of rainfall microphysical characteristics, and to analyze the bright band(BB) characteristics and hydrometeor classification. Specifically, a low-intensity and stable stratiform precipitation event that occurred from 0000 to0550 UTC 15 February 2015 and featured a BB was studied. During this event, the rainfall intensity was less than 2 mm h-1 at a height of 300 m, which was above the radar site level, so the errors caused by the vertical air motion could be ignored.The freezing height from the radiosonde matched well with the top of the BB observed by the MRR. It was also found that the number of 0.5–1 mm diameter drops showed no noticeable variation below the BB. The maximum fall velocity and the maximum gradient fall velocity(GFV) of the raindrops appeared at the bottom of the BB. Meanwhile, a method that uses the GFV and reflectivity to identify the altitude and the thickness of the BB was established, with which the MRR can provide a reliable and real-time estimation of the 0?C isotherm. The droplet fall velocity was used to classify the types of snow crystals above the BB. In the first 20 min of the selected precipitation event, graupel prevailed above the BB; and at an altitude of2000 m, graupel also dominated in the first 250 min. After 150 min, the existence of graupel and dendritic crystals with water droplets above the BB was inferred.

Dominant Cloud Microphysical Processes of a Torrential Rainfall Event in Sichuan, China

High-resolution numerical simulation data of a rainstorm triggering debris flow in Sichuan Province of China simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting （WRF） Model were used to study the dominant cloud microphysical processes of the torrential rainfall.The results showed that：（1） In the strong precipitation period,particle sizes of all hydrometeors increased,and mean-mass diameters of graupel increased the most significantly,as compared with those in the weak precipitation period; （2） The terminal velocity of raindrops was the strongest among all hydrometeors,followed by graupel＇s,which was much smaller than that of raindrops.Differences between various hydrometeors＇ terminal velocities in the strong precipitation period were larger than those in the weak precipitation period,which favored relative motion,collection interaction and transformation between the particles.Absolute terminal velocity values of raindrops and graupel were significantly greater than those of air upward velocity,and the stronger the precipitation was,the greater the differences between them were; （3） The orders of magnitudes of the various hydrometeors＇ sources and sinks in the strong precipitation period were larger than those in the weak precipitation period,causing a difference in the intensity of precipitation.Water vapor,cloud water,raindrops,graupel and their exchange processes played a major role in the production of the torrential rainfall,and there were two main processes via which raindrops were generated：abundant water vapor condensed into cloud water and,on the one hand,accretion of cloud water by rain water formed rain water,while on the other hand,accretion of cloud water by graupel formed graupel,and then the melting of graupel formed rain water.

Improving Radar Rainfall Estimation by Accounting for Microphysical Processes Using a Micro Rain Radar in West Africa

This study evaluates the improvement of the radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimation (QPE) by involving microphysical processes in the determination of Z-R algorithms. Within the framework of the AMMA campaign, measurements of an X-band radar (Xport), a vertical pointing Micro Rain Radar (MRR) to investigate microphysical processes and a dense network of rain gauges deployed in Northern Benin (West Africa) in 2006 and 2007 were used as support to establish such estimators and evaluate their performance compared to other estimators in the literature. By carefully considering and correcting MRR attenuation and calibration issues, the Z-R estimator developed with the contribution of microphysical processes and non-linear least-squares adjustment proves to be more efficient for quantitative rainfall estimation and produces the best statistic scores than other optimal Z-R algorithms in the literature. We also find that it gives results comparable to some polarimetric algorithms including microphysical information through DSD integrated parameter retrievals.

Cloud Microphysical Processes and Atmospheric Water Budget during the 20 July 2021 Extreme Precipitation Event in Zhengzhou,China

This study investigated the cloud microphysical processes and atmospheric water budget during the extreme precipitation event on 20 July 2021 in Zhengzhou of Henan Province,China,based on observations,reanalysis data,and the results from the high-resolution large-eddy simulation nested in the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model with assimilation of satellite and radar observations.The results show that the abundant and persistent southeasterly supply of water vapor,induced by Typhoons In-Fa and Cempaka,under a particular synoptic pattern featured with abnormal northwestward displacement of the western Pacific subtropical high,was conducive to warm rain processes through a high vapor condensation rate of cloud water and an efficient collision–coalescence process of cloud water to rainwater.Such conditions were favorable for the formation and maintenance of the quasi-stationary warmsector heavy rainfall.Precipitation formation through the collision–coalescence process of cloud water to rainwater accounted for approximately 70%of the total,while the melting of snow and graupel accounted for only approximately 30%,indicating that warm cloud processes played a dominant role in this extreme rainfall event.However,enhancement of cold cloud processes promoted by latent heat release also exerted positive effect on rainfall during the period of most intense hourly rainfall.It was also found that rainwater advection from outside of Zhengzhou City played an important role in maintaining the extreme precipitation event.

Comparison of a Spectral Bin and Two Multi-Moment Bulk Microphysics Schemes for Supercell Simulation:Investigation into Key Processes Responsible for Hydrometeor Distributions and Precipitation

There are more uncertainties with ice hydrometeor representations and related processes than liquid hydrometeors within microphysics parameterization(MP)schemes because of their complicated geometries and physical properties.Idealized supercell simulations are produced using the WRF model coupled with“full”Hebrew University spectral bin MP(HU-SBM),and NSSL and Thompson bulk MP(BMP)schemes.HU-SBM downdrafts are typically weaker than those of the NSSL and Thompson simulations,accompanied by less rain evaporation.HU-SBM produces more cloud ice(plates),graupel,and hail than the BMPs,yet precipitates less at the surface.The limiting mass bins(and subsequently,particle size)of rimed ice in HU-SBM and slower rimed ice fall speeds lead to smaller melting-level net rimed ice fluxes than those of the BMPs.Aggregation from plates in HU-SBM,together with snow–graupel collisions,leads to a greater snow contribution to rain than those of the BMPs.Replacing HU-SBM’s fall speeds using the formulations of the BMPs after aggregating the discrete bin values to mass mixing ratios and total number concentrations increases net rain and rimed ice fluxes.Still,they are smaller in magnitude than bulk rain,NSSL hail,and Thompson graupel net fluxes near the surface.Conversely,the melting-layer net rimed ice fluxes are reduced when the fall speeds for the NSSL and Thompson simulations are calculated using HU-SBM fall speed formulations after discretizing the bulk particle size distributions(PSDs)into spectral bins.The results highlight precipitation sensitivity to storm dynamics,fall speed,hydrometeor evolution governed by process rates,and MP PSD design.

Impact of Cloud Microphysical Processes on the Simulation of Typhoon Rananim near Shore. Part I： Cloud Structure and Precipitation Features

By using the Advanced Regional Eta-coordinate Model （AREM）, the basic structure and cloud features of Typhoon Rananim are simulated and verified against observations. Five sets of experiments are designed to investigate the effects of the cloud microphysical processes on the model cloud structure and precipitation features. The importance of the ice-phase microphysics, the cooling effect related to microphysical characteristics change, and the influence of terminal velocity of graupel are examined. The results indicate that the cloud microphysical processes impact more on the cloud development and precipitation features of the typhoon than on its intensity and track. Big differences in the distribution pattern and content of hydro-meteors, and types and amount of rainfall occur in the five experiments, resulting in different heating and cooling effects. The largest difference of 24-h rain rate reaches 52.5 mm h-1 . The results are summarized as follows： 1） when the cooling effect due to the evaporation of rain water is excluded, updrafts in the typhoon＇s inner core are the strongest with the maximum vertical velocity of -19 Pa s-1 and rain water and graupel grow most dominantly with their mixing ratios increased by 1.8 and 2.5 g kg-1, respectively, compared with the control experiment; 2） the melting of snow and graupel affects the growth of rain water mainly in the spiral rainbands, but much less significantly in the eyewall area; 3） the warm cloud microphysical process produces the smallest rainfall area and the largest percentage of convective precipitation （63.19%）, while the largest rainfall area and the smallest percentage of convective precipitation （48.85%） are generated when the terminal velocity of graupel is weakened by half.

Impact of Cloud Microphysical Processes on the Simulation of Typhoon Rananim near Shore. Part II： Typhoon Intensity and Track

The impact of cloud microphysical processes on the simulated intensity and track of Typhoon Rananim is discussed and analyzed in the second part of this study. The results indicate that when the cooling effect due to evaporation of rain water is excluded, the simulated 36-h maximum surface wind speed of Typhoon Rananim is about 7 m s-1 greater than that from all other experiments; however, the typhoon landfall location has the biggest bias of about 150 km against the control experiment. The simulated strong outer rainbands and the vertical shear of the environmental flow are unfavorable for the deepening and maintenance of the typhoon and result in its intensity loss near the landfall. It is the cloud microphysical processes that strengthen and create the outer spiral rainbands, which then increase the local convergence away from the typhoon center and prevent more moisture and energy transport to the inner core of the typhoon. The developed outer rainbands are supposed to bring dry and cold air mass from the middle troposphere to the planetary boundary layer （PBL）. The other branch of the cold airflow comes from the evaporation of rain water itself in the PBL while the droplets are falling. Thus, the cut-off of the warm and moist air to the inner core and the invasion of cold and dry air to the eyewall region are expected to bring about the intensity reduction of the modeled typhoon. Therefore, the deepening and maintenance of Typhoon Rananim during its landing are better simulated through the reduction of these two kinds of model errors.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF MICROPHYSICAL PROCESSES IN CUMULONIMBUS——PART Ⅱ CASE STUDIES OF SHOWER,HAILSTORM AND TORRENTIAL RAIN

A shower cloud observed in Jiangxi,a hailstorm observed in Hebei and“75.8”torrential rain in Henan are simulated with our microphysical model in a one-dimensional framework.The model,using the radio- sonde data as input,gets its output which shows agreement in many aspects as compared with observations in each case.The glaciation of small cumulus cloud,low precipitation efficiency of hailstorm and the per- sistence of torrential rain are demonstrated.It is also shown that the Bergeron process has little influence, but the warm-rain process plays an important role in the formation of precipitation in cumulonimbus with a warm cloud base.

Numerical Study on Microphysical Processes of Two Different Snowfall Cases in Northern China

In this paper, two snowfall cases under different weather conditions in northern China are simulated by using the meso scale model MM5. Two-way nesting structure of domains is designed for each case. Among the explicit schemes of MM5, the Reisner graupel scheme is selected to describe the microphysical process. The simulated snow-bands of two cases are basically consistent with observations. The simulated results of microphysical processes are mainly discussed. The hydrometeors and their sources and sinks under different weather backgrounds are described. The feedback effects of microphysical processes on the thermal and dynamic processes are also discussed. Method that outputs the accumulative sources and sinks per hour is used to analyze the distribution characteristics of hydrometeors during the strongest snowfall period. Two sensitivity tests （called heat test and drag test） are conducted to examine the effects of microphysical processes on cloud produced by the latent heat and drag force. Results have shown that the distribution of particles has a close relation with temperature. The temperature of Beijing snowfall is under 0℃ and there exist vapor and solid phase particles, while Liaoning snowfall has vapor, liquid, and solid phase particles due to the warm temperature. The distribution of these particles is not the same at different development stages. From the analyses of the characteristics of sources and sinks, it is found that snow is mainly produced by the deposition and accretion with ice. Cloud water is crucial to graupel. The melting of ice-phase particles enhances the rain production. The results of heat tests and drag tests reveal that the microphysical processes have interacted with the dynamic and thermal processes. Latent heat release of hydrometeors feeds back positively on snowfall while the drag force not. At last, comparisons of simulated results have been done between the two different kinds of snowfall cases. The microphysical processes of Liaoning snowfall case is more complicated than those of Beijing snowfall case. The values of the cloud variables are larger and the interactions between the microphysical processes and the thermal and dynamic processes of Liaoning snowfall case are stronger than those of Beijing snowfall case.

Comparison of the Bright Band Characteristics Measured by Micro Rain Radar (MRR) at a Mountain and a Coastal Site in South Korea

Data from a long term measurement of Micro Rain Radar （MRR） at a mountain site （Daegwallyeong, DG, one year period of 2005） and a coastal site （Haenam, HN, three years 2004-2006） in South Korea were analyzed to compare the MRR measured bright band characteristics of stratiform precipitation at the two sites. On average, the bright band was somewhat thicker and the sharpness （average gradient of reflectivity above and below the reflectivity peak） was slightly weaker at DG, compared to those values at HN. The peak reflectivity itself was twice as strong and the relative location of the peak reflectivity within the bright band was higher at HN than at DG. Importantly, the variability of these values was much larger at HN than at DG. The key parameter to cause these differences is suggested to be the difference of the snow particle densities at the two sites, which is related to the degree of riming. Therefore, it is speculated that the cloud microphysical processes at HN may have varied significantly from un-rimed snow growth, producing low density snow particles, to the riming of higher density particles, while snow particle growth at DG was more consistently affected by the riming process, and therefore high density snow particles. Forced uplifting of cloudy air over the mountain area around DG might have resulted in an orographic supercooling effect that led to the enhanced riming of supercooled cloud drops.

A Modified Double-Moment Bulk Microphysics Scheme Geared toward the East Asian Monsoon Region

Representation of cloud microphysical processes is one of the key aspects of numerical models.An improved double-moment bulk cloud microphysics scheme(named IMY)was created based on the standard Milbrandt-Yau(MY)scheme in the Weather Research and Forecasting(WRF)model for the East Asian monsoon region(EAMR).In the IMY scheme,the shape parameters of raindrops,snow particles,and cloud droplet size distributions are variables instead of fixed constants.Specifically,the shape parameters of raindrop and snow size distributions are diagnosed from their respective shape-slope relationships.The shape parameter for the cloud droplet size distribution depends on the total cloud droplet number concentration.In addition,a series of minor improvements involving detailed cloud processes have also been incorporated.The improved scheme was coupled into the WRF model and tested on two heavy rainfall cases over the EAMR.The IMY scheme is shown to reproduce the overall spatial distribution of rainfall and its temporal evolution,evidenced by comparing the modeled results with surface gauge observations.The simulations also successfully capture the cloud features by using satellite and ground-based radar observations as a reference.The IMY has yielded simulation results on the case studies that were comparable,and in ways superior to MY,indicating that the improved scheme shows promise.Although the simulations demonstrated a positive performance evaluation for the IMY scheme,continued experiments are required to further validate the scheme with different weather events.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION OF MICROBURST

Based on the atmospheric dynamics, a two dimensional, slab symmetric numerical microburst model is developed. The model subdivides water substance into five types, including water vapor, cloud droplets, rainwater, ice crystals and graupels (hails), considering the detailed microphysical processes of warm cloud and ice phase as well. By the model the wet microburst is numerically simulated with an agreeable result. In addition, ten experiments are conducted in order to examine the microburst sensitivity to environmental conditions.

THE MICROPHYSICAL STRUCTURE OF SNOW CLOUDS AND THE GROWTH PROCESS OF SNOW PARTICLES IN WINTER IN XINJIANG

The microphysical structure of snow clouds and the growth process of snow crystals were observed by means of instrumented aircraft, weather radar, snow crystal observations etc. in Urumqi region during the winter of 1982. The analysis of three cases show that about 70% of snow mass growth is produced in the lower layer below 2000 m under the cold front, and that the concentration of ice crystals is as high as 60 L^(-1) and the supercooled water is absent in lower clouds. We may infer that the deposition of ice crystals and the aggregation of snow crystals are important processes for the snow development. The microphysical structure of the snow band near the front aloft and its characteristics as a seeder cloud are also described in this paper.

NUMERICAL SIMULATION STUDY OF HAIL CLOUD—PART Ⅰ:THE NUMERICAL MODEL

In order to study mechanisms of hailstone formation and hail suppression with seeding and to obtain optimum seeding technique for hail cloud,a 3-D compressive numerical seeding model for hail cloud is developed.The water substance in hail cloud is divided into 8 categories,i.e.,water vapor,cloud droplet,raindrop,ice crystal,snow.graupel,frozen drop and hail,and the detailed microphysical processes are described in a spectrum with two variable parameters and more reasonable particle number/size distributions.Then,the model is able to predict concentration and water content of various particles.Especially.it can calculate the number of hailstones whose cores are graupel or frozen drop and apply to study mechanism of hailstone formation. Additionally,a conservative equation of AgI as seeding or glacigenous agent is found and nucleation by condensation of artificial nucleus,and nucleation by freezing of cloud droplet or rain drop which contact with AgI particle are considered.The dynamic energy flux of hail shooting on ground is used to verify seeding effect.Therefore the model is also used to study mechanism of hail suppression with seeding and the seeding technique,

Solar Wind：A Possible Factor Driving the Interannual Sea Surface Temperature Tripolar Mode over North Atlantic

The effect of solar wind（SW） on the North Atlantic sea surface temperature（SST） in boreal winter is examined through an analysis of observational data during 1964-2013.The North Atlantic SSTs show a pronounced meridional tripolar pattern in response to solar wind speed（SWS） variations.This pattern is broadly similar to the leading empirical orthogonal function（EOF） mode of interannual variations in the wintertime SSTs over North Atlantic.The time series of this leading EOF mode of SST shows a significant interannual period,which is the same as that of wintertime SWS.This response also appears as a compact north-south seesaw of sea level pressure and a vertical tripolar structure of zonal wind,which simultaneously resembles the North Atlantic Oscillation（NAO） in the overlying atmosphere.As compared with the typical low SWS winters,during the typical high SWS winters,the stratospheric polar night jet（PNJ） is evidently enhanced and extends from the stratosphere to the troposphere,even down to the North Atlantic Ocean surface.Notably,the North Atlantic Ocean is an exclusive region in which the SW signal spreads downward from the stratosphere to the troposphere.Thus,it seems that the SW is a possible factor for this North Atlantic SST tripolar mode.The dynamical process of stratosphere-troposphere coupling,together with the global atmospheric electric circuit-cloud microphysical process,probably accounts for the particular downward propagation of the SW signal.

A Simulation Study on the Characteristics of Cloud Microphysics of Heavy Rainfall in the Meiyu Front

A heavy rainfall in the Meiyu front during 4-5 July 2003 is simulated by use of the non-hydrostatic mesoscale model MM5 （V3-6） with different explicit cloud microphysical parameterization schemes. The characteristics of microphysical process of convective cloud are studied by the model outputs. The simulation study reveals that： （1） The mesoscale model MM5 with explicit cloud microphysical process is capable of simulating the instant heavy rainfall in the Meiyu front, the rainfall simulation could be improved signifi- cantly as the model resolution is increased, and the Goddard scheme is better than the Reisner or Schultz scheme. （2） The convective cloud in the Meiyu front has a comprehensive structure composed of solid, liquid and vapor phases of water, the mass density of water vapor is the largest one in the cloud; the next one is graupel, while those of ice, snow, rain water and the cloud water are almost same. The height at which mass density peaks for different hydrometeors is almost unchangeable during the heavy rainfall period. The mass density variation of rain water, ice, and graupel are consistent with that of ground precipitation, while that of water vapor in the low levels is 1-2 h earlier than the precipitation. （3） The main contribution to the water vapor budget in the atmosphere is the convergence of vapor flux through advection and convection, which provides the main vapor source of the rainfall. Besides the basic process of the auto-conversion of cloud water to rain water, there is an additional cloud microphysical process that is essential to the formation of instant heavy rainfall, the ice-phase crystals are transformed into graupels first and then the increased graupels mix with cloud water and accelerates the conversion of cloud water to rain water. The positive feedback mechanism between latent heat release and convection is the main cause to maintain and develop the heavy precipitation.