Polarimetric radar observations of deep convective storms frequently reveal columnar enhancements of differential reflectivity Z DR . Such ''Z DR columns'' can extend upward more than 3 km above the environmental 08C level, indicative of supercooled liquid drops being lofted by the updraft. Previous observational and modeling studies of Z DR columns are reviewed. To address remaining questions, the Hebrew University Cloud Model, an advanced spectral bin microphysical model, is coupled with a polarimetric radar operator to simulate the formation and life cycle of Z DR columns in a deep convective continental storm. In doing so, the mechanisms by which Z DR columns are produced are clarified, including the formation of large raindrops in the updraft by recirculation of smaller raindrops formed aloft back into the updraft at low levels. The internal hydrometeor structure of Z DR columns is quantified, revealing the transition from supercooled liquid drops to freezing drops to hail with height in the Z DR column. The life cycle of Z DR columns from early formation, through growth to maturity, to demise is described, showing how hail falling out through the weakening or ascending updraft bubble dominates the reflectivity factor Z H , causing the death of the Z DR column and leaving behind its ''ghost'' of supercooled drops. In addition, the practical applications of Z DR columns and their evolution are explored. The height of the Z DR column is correlated with updraft strength, and the evolution of Z DR column height is correlated with increases in Z H and hail mass content at the ground after a lag of 10-15 min.
In Part I of this two-part paper, a formulation was developed to treat fragmentation in ice–ice collisions. In the present Part II, the formulation is implemented in two microphysically advanced cloud models simulating a convective line observed over the U.S. high plains. One model is 2D with a spectral bin microphysics scheme. The other has a hybrid bin–two-moment bulk microphysics scheme in 3D. The case consists of cumulonimbus cells with cold cloud bases (near 0°C) in a dry troposphere. Only with breakup included in the simulation are aircraft observations of particles with maximum dimensions >0.2 mm in the storm adequately predicted by both models. In fact, breakup in ice–ice collisions is by far the most prolific process of ice initiation in the simulated clouds (95%–98% of all nonhomogeneous ice), apart from homogeneous freezing of droplets. Inclusion of breakup in the cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations increased, by between about one and two orders of magnitude, the average concentration of ice between about 0° and −30°C. Most of the breakup is due to collisions of snow with graupel/hail. It is broadly consistent with the theoretical result in Part I about an explosive tendency for ice multiplication. Breakup in collisions of snow (crystals >~1 mm and aggregates) with denser graupel/hail was the main pathway for collisional breakup and initiated about 60%–90% of all ice particles not from homogeneous freezing, in the simulations by both models. Breakup is predicted to reduce accumulated surface precipitation in the simulated storm by about 20%–40%.
A midlatitude hail storm was simulated using a new version of the spectral bin microphysics Hebrew University Cloud Model (HUCM) with a detailed description of time-dependent melting and freezing. In addition to size distributions of drops, plate-, columnar-, and branch-type ice crystals, snow, graupel, and hail, new distributions for freezing drops as well as for liquid water mass within precipitating ice particles were implemented to describe time-dependent freezing and wet growth of hail, graupel, and freezing drops.Simulations carried out using different aerosol loadings show that an increase in aerosol loading leads to a decrease in the total mass of hail but also to a substantial increase in the maximum size of hailstones. Cumulative rain strongly increases with an increase in aerosol concentration from 100 to about 1000 cm 23 . At higher cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations, the sensitivity of hailstones' size and surface precipitation to aerosols decreases. The physical mechanism of these effects was analyzed. It was shown that the change in aerosol concentration leads to a change in the major mechanisms of hail formation and growth. The main effect of the increase in the aerosol concentration is the increase in the supercooled cloud water content. Accordingly, at high aerosol concentration, the hail grows largely by accretion of cloud droplets in the course of recycling in the cloud updraft zone. The main mechanism of hail formation in the case of low aerosol concentration is freezing of raindrops.
At subzero temperatures, cloud particles can contain both ice and liquid water fractions. Wet growth of precipitation particles occurs when supercooled cloud liquid is accreted faster than it can freeze on impact.With a flexible framework, the theory of wet growth of hail is extended to the case of the inhomogeneities of surface temperature and of liquid coverage over the surface of the particle. The theory treats the heat fluxes between its wet and dry parts and radial heat fluxes from the sponge layer through the liquid skin to the air. The theory parameterizes effects of nonsphericity of hail particles on their growth by accretion. Gradual internal freezing of any liquid soaking the hail or graupel particle's interior during dry growth (''riming'') is treated as well. In this way, the microphysical recycling envisaged by Pflaum in a paper in 1980 is treated, with alternating episodes of wet and dry growth.The present paper, the first of a two-part paper, describes the scheme to treat wet growth, accounting for dependencies on condensate content, temperature, and particle size. Comparison with the laboratory experiments is presented.
Mechanisms of formation of differential reflectivity columns are investigated in simulations of a midlatitude summertime hailstorm with hailstones up to several centimeters in diameter. Simulations are performed using a new version of the Hebrew University Cloud Model (HUCM) with spectral bin microphysics. A polarimetric radar forward operator is used to calculate radar reflectivity and differential reflectivity ZDR. It is shown that ZDR columns are associated with raindrops and with hail particles growing in a wet growth regime within convective updrafts. The height and volume of ZDR columns increases with an increase in aerosol concentration. Small hail forming under clean conditions grows in updrafts largely in a dry growth regime corresponding to low ZDR. Characteristics of ZDR columns are highly correlated with vertical velocity, hail size, and aerosol concentration.
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