Orographic Precipitation in the Tropics: The Dominica Experiment

Smith, Ronald B.; Minder, Justin R.; Nugent, Alison D.; Storelvmo, Trude; Kirshbaum, Daniel J.; Warren, Robert A.; Lareau, Neil P.; Palany, Phillipe Elie; James, Arlington; French, Jeffrey R.

doi:10.1175/bams-d-11-00194.1

Cited by 76 publications

(60 citation statements)

References 37 publications

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“…The island is known for its waterfalls, rushing rivers, and flash floods. About half of the electrical energy for 72,000 inhabitants comes from hydropower [27][28][29]. In recent years, Dominica has been hit by Hurricanes David in 1979, Dean in 2007 [30], and Erika in 2015 [31].…”

Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Hurricane Maria on the Vegetation of Dominica and Puerto Rico Using Multispectral Remote Sensing

Smith

2018

Remote Sensing

101

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Abstract:As the worst natural disaster on record in Dominica and Puerto Rico, Hurricane Maria in September 2017 had a large impact on the vegetation of these islands. In this paper, multitemporal Landsat 8 OLI and Sentinel-2 data are used to investigate vegetation damage on Dominica and Puerto Rico by Hurricane Maria, and related influencing factors are analyzed. Moreover, the changes in the normalized difference vegetation index (NDVI) in the year 2017 are compared to reference years (2015 and 2016). The results show that (1) there is a sudden drop in NDVI values after Hurricane Maria's landfall (decreased about 0.2) which returns to near normal vegetation after 1.5 months; (2) different land cover types have different sensitivities to Hurricane Maria, whereby forest is the most sensitive type, then followed by wetland, built-up, and natural grassland; and (3) for Puerto Rico, the vegetation damage is highly correlated with distance from the storm center and elevation. For Dominica, where the whole island is within Hurricane Maria's radius of maximum wind, the vegetation damage has no obvious relationship to elevation or distance. The study provides insight into the sensitivity and recovery of vegetation after a major land-falling hurricane, and may lead to improved vegetation protection strategies.

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Section: Study Areamentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Hurricane Maria on the Vegetation of Dominica and Puerto Rico Using Multispectral Remote Sensing

Smith

2018

Remote Sensing

101

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“…The dominant horizontal scale of these water-vapour anomalies may be significantly larger than that of the vertical-velocity perturbations (de Roode, et al, 2004), which favours the initiation of larger island clouds. Observations from the DOMinica EXperiment (DOMEX 2011) have recently highlighted the presence of broad, neutrally buoyant moisture 'patches' with characteristic scales of 3-8 km in the sub-cloud layers of trade-wind flows impinging on Dominica (Smith, et al, 2012).…”

Section: Saturation Of Impinging Water-vapour Anomaliesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Invigoration of cumulus cloud fields by mesoscale ascent

Kirshbaum

Grant

2012

Quart J Royal Meteoro Soc

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Large-eddy simulations of trade-wind cumuli impinging on an idealized island ridge are conducted to investigate the impact of mesoscale ascent on the morphology and vigour of cumulus convection. The simulations develop realistic cloud fields that invigorate when forced to ascend the high terrain despite being trapped beneath a sinking trade-wind inversion. Two upstream cloud regimes are considered, the first non-precipitating and the second lightly precipitating. Focus is placed on the precipitating case, where the island gives rise to a dramatic (15-fold) precipitation enhancement compared to the upstream ocean. This arises from (i) an increased concentration of buoyant updraughts, (ii) the 'lapse-rate' mechanism, wherein saturated parcels gain buoyancy as they ascend alongside dry parcels with different adiabatic lapse rates, and (iii) the 'cloud-size' mechanism, wherein the fractional entrainment rate decreases due to an increase in the mean horizontal cloud size. Although the first two mechanisms have received previous attention, the third is novel and potentially important. The broader clouds within the ascending airstream possess less dilute and more buoyant inner core regions that ascend faster through the cloud layer. Moreover, the increased liquid-water supplies and longer residence times of raindrops within these clouds lead to a sharp enhancement in the precipitation efficiency. The island cloud broadening is favoured by the presence of broad water-vapour anomalies within the impinging airstream that are mechanically lifted to saturation, along with basic energetic constraints that support wider, less dilute clouds in areas of rapid forced ascent.

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“…While these research programmes addressed a broad range of scientific questions, a number of other campaigns targeted specific phenomena, generally in mountain areas with relatively limited geographical extent (ASCOT [26], BLLAST [27], COLPEX [28], COPS [29], CUPIDO [30], DOMEX [31], MATERHORN [32], METCRAX [33], METCRAX II [34], PAP [35], PCAPS [36], Pic 2005 [37], TRACT [38], T-REX [39], VERTIKATOR [40], VOTALP [41], and VTMX [42]). Although they did not focus primarily on exchange in the ABL over mountains, all of these experimental efforts indirectly led to significant progress in the understanding of the relevant processes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Exchange Processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Mountainous Terrain

et al. 2018

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Abstract:The exchange of heat, momentum, and mass in the atmosphere over mountainous terrain is controlled by synoptic-scale dynamics, thermally driven mesoscale circulations, and turbulence. This article reviews the key challenges relevant to the understanding of exchange processes in the mountain boundary layer and outlines possible research priorities for the future. The review describes the limitations of the experimental study of turbulent exchange over complex terrain, the impact of slope and valley breezes on the structure of the convective boundary layer, and the role of intermittent mixing and wave-turbulence interaction in the stable boundary layer. The interplay between exchange processes at different spatial scales is discussed in depth, emphasizing the role of elevated and ground-based stable layers in controlling multi-scale interactions in the atmosphere over and near mountains. Implications of the current understanding of exchange processes over mountains towards the improvement of numerical weather prediction and climate models are discussed, considering in particular the representation of surface boundary conditions, the parameterization of sub-grid-scale exchange, and the development of stochastic perturbation schemes.

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Orographic Precipitation in the Tropics: The Dominica Experiment

Cited by 76 publications

References 37 publications

The Impact of Hurricane Maria on the Vegetation of Dominica and Puerto Rico Using Multispectral Remote Sensing

The Impact of Hurricane Maria on the Vegetation of Dominica and Puerto Rico Using Multispectral Remote Sensing

Invigoration of cumulus cloud fields by mesoscale ascent

Exchange Processes in the Atmospheric Boundary Layer Over Mountainous Terrain

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