A description is given of the Maritime Continent Thunderstorm Experiment held over the Tiwi Islands (12°S, 130°E) during the period November-December 1995. The unique nature of regularly occurring storms over these islands enabled a study principally aimed at investigating the life cycle of island-initiated mesoscale convective systems within the Maritime Continent. The program objectives are first outlined and then selected results from various observationally based and modeling studies are summarized. These storms are shown to depend typically on island-scale forcing although external mesoscale disturbances can result in significant storm activity as they pass over the heated island. Particular emphasis is given to summarizing the environmental characteristics and the impact this has on the location of storm development and the associated rainfall distribution. The mean rainfall production from these storms is shown to be about 760 x 10 5 m 3 , with considerable variability. The mesoscale evolution is summarized and during the rapid development phase the interaction of storms with preexisting convergence zones is highlighted. In situ microphysical observations show the occurrence of very large rain drops (up to 8-mm diameter) and very large concentrations of ice crystals in the-10° to-60°C temperature range associated with the very intense updrafts. Occurrence of graupel aloft is shown to be strongly linked to cloud to ground lightning. Polarimetric radar-based rainfall estimates using specific differential phase shift are shown to be considerably better than reflectivity based estimates. Studies relating to the structure of anvil cloud and the effect on the radiative heating profile are also summarized. Initial attempts at modeling storm development are also presented. Two different nonhydrostatic models on days with markedly different evolution are employed and indicate that the models show considerable promise in their ability to develop mesoscale systems. However, important differences still remain between observed storm evolution and that modeled.
A continental stratus cloud layer was studied by advanced ground-based remote sensing instruments and aircraft probes on 30 April 1994 from the Cloud and Radiation Testbed site in north-central Oklahoma. The boundary layer structure clearly resembled that of a cloud-topped mixed layer, and the cloud content is shown to be near adiabatic up to the cloud-top entrainment zone. A cloud retrieval algorithm using the radar reflectivity and cloud droplet concentration (either measured in situ or deduced using dual-channel microwave radiometer data) is applied to construct uniquely high-resolution cross sections of liquid water content and mean droplet radius. The combined evidence indicates that the 350-600 m deep, slightly supercooled (2.0Њ to Ϫ2.0ЊC) cloud, which failed to produce any detectable ice or drizzle particles, contained an average droplet concentration of 347 cm Ϫ3 , and a maximum liquid water content of 0.8 g m Ϫ3 and mean droplet radius of 9 m near cloud top. Lidar data indicate that the K a-band radar usually detected the cloud-base height to within ϳ50 m, such that the radar insensitivity to small cloud droplets had a small impact on the findings. Radar-derived liquid water paths ranged from 71 to 259 g m Ϫ2 as the stratus deck varied, which is in excellent agreement with dual-channel microwave radiometer data, but ϳ20% higher than that measured in situ. This difference appears to be due to the undersampling of the few largest cloud droplets by the aircraft probes. This combination of approaches yields a unique image of the content of a continental stratus cloud, as well as illustrating the utility of modern remote sensing systems for probing nonprecipitating water clouds.
Cloud measurements at millimeter-wave frequencies are affected by attenuation due to atmospheric gases, clouds, and precipitation. Estimation of the true equivalent radar reflectivity, Z e , is complicated because extinction mechanisms are not well characterized at these short wavelengths. This paper discusses cloud radar calibration and intercomparison of airborne and ground-based radar measurements and presents a unique algorithm for attenuation retrieval. This algorithm is based on dual 95-GHz radar measurements of the same cloud and precipitation volumes collected from opposing viewing angles. True radar reflectivity is retrieved by combining upward-looking and downward-looking radar profiles. This method reduces the uncertainty in radar reflectivity and attenuation estimates, since it does not require a priori knowledge of hydrometeors' microphysical properties. Results from this technique are compared with results retrieved from the Hitschfeld and Bordan algorithm, which uses single-radar measurements with path-integrated attenuation as a constraint. Further analysis is planned to employ this dual-radar algorithm in order to refine single-radar attenuation retrieval techniques, which will be used by operational sensors such as the CloudSat radar.
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