During the field experiment of winter mesoscale convective systems over the Sea of Japan in 2001 (WMO-01), several snowbands associated with a cold front developed remarkably at 10@30 km off the coast of Hokuriku district on 28 and 29 January 2001. Dual-Doppler radar analysis was made to investigate the mechanisms responsible for the successive development of the snowbands.Derived wind fields revealed that a mesoscale convergence line was formed between the prevailing westerly and shallow (@1 km depth), cold southwesterly winds that blew from inland toward Toyama bay. As the downshear-tilting convective cells in the snowbands approached the convergence line, they became almost upright and their height increased from 4 km to 6@7 km. The edge of the southwesterly cold air temporarily became indistinct because of the entrainment of the air into the convective cells that developed aloft. However, the subsequent advection of the cold southwesterly reestablished the convergence line, and enabled the successive development of following snowbands.

This paper reports a high-speed volumetric observation of a wet microburst event using X-band phased array weather radar (PAWR) in Japan. On 10 September 2014, PAWR observed the three-dimensional structure of a convection cell, which had a vertical extent of 5–6 km and a horizontal dimension of 2–10 km, moving toward the east-northeast. At 2310 Japan standard time (JST), a precipitation core with a radar reflectivity of >40 dBZ appeared at 3–5 km above ground level. The core then increased in size and intensity and rapidly descended to the ground. During this time, a reflectivity notch associated with midlevel inflow was initially formed near the top of the precipitation core and, subsequently, at lower altitudes. A strong low-level outflow with a radial divergence of >4 × 10−3 s−1 appeared just below the notch at around 2321 JST. The outflow lasted for approximately 13 min and eventually disappeared after 2333 JST along with dissipation of the causative storm cell. These results suggest that, in addition to hydrometeor loading, evaporative cooling due to the entrainment of midlevel relatively dry air played an additional role in driving a strong downdraft. The preceding signatures including descending precipitation core, reflectivity notch, and midlevel convergence observed by PAWR are useful precursors to forecast the occurrence of low-level wind shear 5–10 min ahead, which is important for safe air traffic operation.

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A three-dimensional (3D) winter lightning mapping system employing very high frequency (VHF) broadband signals was developed for continuous remote observation in winter. VHF broadband pulses radiated by leader progression are received with three discone antennas arranged in a triangle (20-30 m) and recorded on a high-speed digital oscilloscope (1.25-GHz sampling) with GPS digital timing data. The two-dimensional (2D) mapping for azimuth and elevation of the VHF radiation sources was conducted by computing the arrival time differences of three pulses using a cross-correlation technique. From azimuth and elevation data from two sites extracted within a given time frame, 3D lightning mapping was performed using the triangulation scheme. An observation network for winter lightning was constructed within a comprehensive meteorological observation network in the Shonai area, which is located on the coast of the Japan Sea. This report includes the preliminary 2D and 3D mapping of winter lightning observed on 3 December 2010. The horizontal and vertical distributions of VHF radiation sources were consistent with the radar echo observed with X-band Doppler radar. These results indicate that the system can detect winter lightning discharges and perform 2D and 3D lightning mapping in detail.