TY - JOUR
T1 - The influence of sea- and land-breeze circulations on the diurnal variability in precipitation over a tropical island
AU - Zhu, Lei
AU - Meng, Zhiyong
AU - Zhang, Fuqing
AU - Markowski, Paul M.
N1 - Funding Information:
Acknowledgements. Lei Zhu is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China grant 41461164006, and the Chinese Scholarship Council (CSC). Zhiyong Meng is supported by the Natural Science Foundation of China grants 41461164006, 41425018 and 41375048. Fuqing Zhang is supported by the Office of Naval Research grant N000140910526 and the National Science Foundation grant AGS-1305798. Paul Markowski is supported by the National Science Foundation grant AGS-1536460 and the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration awards NA15NWS4680012 and NA14NWS4680015. The simulations were performed on the Stampede supercomputer of the Texas Advanced Computing Center (TACC). All data are freely available from sources indicated in the text or from the corresponding author upon request (email: [email protected]).
PY - 2017/11/8
Y1 - 2017/11/8
N2 - This study examines the diurnal variation in precipitation over Hainan Island in the South China Sea using gauge observations from 1951 to 2012 and Climate Prediction Center MORPHing technique (CMORPH) satellite estimates from 2006 to 2015, as well as numerical simulations. The simulations are the first to use climatological mean initial and lateral boundary conditions to study the dynamic and thermodynamic processes (and the impacts of land-sea breeze circulations) that control the rainfall distribution and climatology. Precipitation is most significant from April to October and exhibits a strong diurnal cycle resulting from land-sea breeze circulations. More than 60ĝ€% of the total annual precipitation over the island is attributable to the diurnal cycle with a significant monthly variability. The CMORPH and gauge datasets agree well, except that the CMORPH data underestimate precipitation and have a 1ĝ€h peak delay. The diurnal cycle of the rainfall and the related land-sea breeze circulations during May and June were well captured by convection-permitting numerical simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, which were initiated from a 10-year average ERA-Interim reanalysis. The simulations have a slight overestimation of rainfall amounts and a 1ĝ€h delay in peak rainfall time. The diurnal cycle of precipitation is driven by the occurrence of moist convection around noontime owing to low-level convergence associated with the sea-breeze circulations. The precipitation intensifies rapidly thereafter and peaks in the afternoon with the collisions of sea-breeze fronts from different sides of the island. Cold pools of the convective storms contribute to the inland propagation of the sea breeze. Generally, precipitation dissipates quickly in the evening due to the cooling and stabilization of the lower troposphere and decrease of boundary layer moisture. Interestingly, the rather high island orography is not a dominant factor in the diurnal variation in precipitation over the island.
AB - This study examines the diurnal variation in precipitation over Hainan Island in the South China Sea using gauge observations from 1951 to 2012 and Climate Prediction Center MORPHing technique (CMORPH) satellite estimates from 2006 to 2015, as well as numerical simulations. The simulations are the first to use climatological mean initial and lateral boundary conditions to study the dynamic and thermodynamic processes (and the impacts of land-sea breeze circulations) that control the rainfall distribution and climatology. Precipitation is most significant from April to October and exhibits a strong diurnal cycle resulting from land-sea breeze circulations. More than 60ĝ€% of the total annual precipitation over the island is attributable to the diurnal cycle with a significant monthly variability. The CMORPH and gauge datasets agree well, except that the CMORPH data underestimate precipitation and have a 1ĝ€h peak delay. The diurnal cycle of the rainfall and the related land-sea breeze circulations during May and June were well captured by convection-permitting numerical simulations with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model, which were initiated from a 10-year average ERA-Interim reanalysis. The simulations have a slight overestimation of rainfall amounts and a 1ĝ€h delay in peak rainfall time. The diurnal cycle of precipitation is driven by the occurrence of moist convection around noontime owing to low-level convergence associated with the sea-breeze circulations. The precipitation intensifies rapidly thereafter and peaks in the afternoon with the collisions of sea-breeze fronts from different sides of the island. Cold pools of the convective storms contribute to the inland propagation of the sea breeze. Generally, precipitation dissipates quickly in the evening due to the cooling and stabilization of the lower troposphere and decrease of boundary layer moisture. Interestingly, the rather high island orography is not a dominant factor in the diurnal variation in precipitation over the island.
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U2 - 10.5194/acp-17-13213-2017
DO - 10.5194/acp-17-13213-2017
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85033364310
SN - 1680-7316
VL - 17
SP - 13213
EP - 13232
JO - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
JF - Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics
IS - 21
ER -
