TY - JOUR
T1 - Statistical characteristics of raindrop size distributions observed in East China during the asian summer monsoon season using 2-D video disdrometer and micro rain radar data
AU - Wen, Long
AU - Zhao, Kun
AU - Zhang, Guifu
AU - Xue, Ming
AU - Zhou, Bowen
AU - Liu, Su
AU - Chen, Xingchao
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was primarily supported by the National Fundamental Research 973 Program of China (2013CB430101), the National Natural Science Foundation of China (grants 41275031, 41322032, and 41475015), the Social Common Wealth Research Program (GYHY201006007), and Program for New Century Excellent Talents in University of China. Observational data used in this study were collected by a National 973 Project (2013CB430101). Due to its data policy, theDSD andMRR data cannot bereleased publically until 2018. Special requests for the data can be made at http://scw973. nju.edu.cn/ or contacting the project office at yang.zhengwei@nju.edu.cn. After 2018, the data of this paper will be uploaded to http://www.nersc.gov/ users/science-gate-ways/ for public sharing. We also thank the Editor and three anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions that improved our paper.
Publisher Copyright:
©2016. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.
PY - 2016/3/16
Y1 - 2016/3/16
N2 - The characteristics of raindrop size distributions (DSDs) and vertical structures of rainfall during the Asian summer monsoon season in East China are studied using measurements from a ground-based two-dimensional video disdrometer (2DVD) and a vertically pointing Micro Rain Radar (MRR). Based on rainfall intensity and vertical structure of radar reflectivity, the observed rainfall is classified into convective, stratiform, and shallow precipitation types. Among them, shallow precipitation has previously been ignored or treated as outliers due to limitations in traditional surface measurements. Using advanced instruments of 2DVD and MRR, the characteristics of shallow precipitation are quantified. Furthermore, summer rainfall in the study region is found to consist mainly of stratiform rain in terms of frequency of occurrence but is dominated by convective rain in terms of accumulated rainfall amount. Further separation of the summer season into time periods before, during, and after the Meiyu season reveals that intrasummer variation of DSDs is mainly due to changes in percentage occurrence of the three precipitation types, while the characteristics of each type remain largely unchanged throughout the summer. Overall, higher raindrop concentrations and smaller diameters are found compared to monsoon precipitation at other locations in Asia. Higher local aerosol concentration is speculated to be the cause. Finally, rainfall estimation relationships using polarimetric radar measurements are derived and discussed. These new relationships agree well with rain gauge measurements and are more accurate than traditional relations, especially at high and low rain rates.
AB - The characteristics of raindrop size distributions (DSDs) and vertical structures of rainfall during the Asian summer monsoon season in East China are studied using measurements from a ground-based two-dimensional video disdrometer (2DVD) and a vertically pointing Micro Rain Radar (MRR). Based on rainfall intensity and vertical structure of radar reflectivity, the observed rainfall is classified into convective, stratiform, and shallow precipitation types. Among them, shallow precipitation has previously been ignored or treated as outliers due to limitations in traditional surface measurements. Using advanced instruments of 2DVD and MRR, the characteristics of shallow precipitation are quantified. Furthermore, summer rainfall in the study region is found to consist mainly of stratiform rain in terms of frequency of occurrence but is dominated by convective rain in terms of accumulated rainfall amount. Further separation of the summer season into time periods before, during, and after the Meiyu season reveals that intrasummer variation of DSDs is mainly due to changes in percentage occurrence of the three precipitation types, while the characteristics of each type remain largely unchanged throughout the summer. Overall, higher raindrop concentrations and smaller diameters are found compared to monsoon precipitation at other locations in Asia. Higher local aerosol concentration is speculated to be the cause. Finally, rainfall estimation relationships using polarimetric radar measurements are derived and discussed. These new relationships agree well with rain gauge measurements and are more accurate than traditional relations, especially at high and low rain rates.
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U2 - 10.1002/2015JD024160
DO - 10.1002/2015JD024160
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84960891439
SN - 0148-0227
VL - 121
SP - 2265
EP - 2282
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research
IS - 5
ER -