Raindrop size distribution of different cloud types over the Western Ghats using simultaneous measurements from Micro-Rain Radar and disdrometer

Das, Subrata Kumar; Konwar, Mahen; Chakravarty, Kaustav; Deshpande, Sachin M.

doi:10.1016/j.atmosres.2016.11.003

Cited by 86 publications

(71 citation statements)

References 43 publications

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“…Recently, there have been few ground‐based studies on orographic convection documenting the radar divergence profiles (Deshpande et al, ) and drop size distributions (Das et al, ; Konwar et al, ). Utsav et al () derived the statistical characteristics of convective clouds over the WG during monsoon using the X‐band radar observations.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observed Vertical Structure of Convection During Dry and Wet Summer Monsoon Epochs Over the Western Ghats

et al. 2019

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Summer precipitation over the Western Ghats is an important facet of Indian monsoon. The vertical structure of mesoscale convection during dry and wet epochs of regional precipitation is studied using X‐band Doppler radar, for the first time. The observed characteristics are distinctly different in terms of small‐scale convective and large‐scale atmospheric features for the dry versus wet regimes. The depth and intensity of convection is analyzed using various echo‐top heights (ETHs). The frequency distribution of 0‐ and 15‐dBZ ETH exhibits bimodality during the dry period, which changes to unimodal in wet period. Top heights of precipitating convection (characterized by 30‐dBZ echoes) decreased with low‐level static stability, suggesting preponderance of shallow convection with little stratiform clouds. Suppressed heating in the dry period is a signature of reduced 0‐dBZ ETH occurrence. However, its enhanced occurrence during the wet period resulted in cooling below 2 km and increased heating aloft with maxima at 6 km. Near high precipitation events, midtropospheric humidity rapidly builds up over 2–3 days prior to increase in cloud‐top heights and areal coverage. Observations indicate large amplitude of ETH diurnal cycle during the dry period (especially over leeside) accompanied by weak upstream winds. However, during the wet period, smaller amplitude of ETH is evident (throughout the radar domain) under strong upstream wind conditions. Convective activity during the late afternoon hours produces higher lighting flashes in the dry period compared to the wet. The lightning occurrences are related with penetrations of 30‐dBZ ETH above the freezing level and convective area fractions.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Observed Vertical Structure of Convection During Dry and Wet Summer Monsoon Epochs Over the Western Ghats

et al. 2019

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“…Details on the estimation of D m and N w from the JWD measurements at HACPL are provided in Das et al . []. It is clear from Figure a that the distribution of D m is narrower in the GPM measurements compared to JWD estimated D m .…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The 1 min DSD is fitted with a gamma function as suggested by Ulbrich [1983] to derive mass-weighted mean diameter (D m ) and normalized intercept parameter (N w ) as defined by Bringi et al [2003]. Details about the used JWD data are provided in Das et al [2017].…”

Section: Disdrometermentioning

confidence: 99%

The assessment of Global Precipitation Measurement estimates over the Indian subcontinent

Krishna

Das

Deshpande

et al. 2017

Earth and Space Science

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Accurate and real‐time precipitation estimation is a challenging task for current and future spaceborne measurements, which is essential to understand the global hydrological cycle. Recently, the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) satellites were launched as a next‐generation rainfall mission for observing the global precipitation characteristics. The purpose of the GPM is to enhance the spatiotemporal resolution of global precipitation. The main objective of the present study is to assess the rainfall products from the GPM, especially the Integrated Multi‐satellitE Retrievals for the GPM (IMERG) data by comparing with the ground‐based observations. The multitemporal scale evaluations of rainfall involving subdaily, diurnal, monthly, and seasonal scales were performed over the Indian subcontinent. The comparison shows that the IMERG performed better than the Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission (TRMM)‐3B42, although both rainfall products underestimated the observed rainfall compared to the ground‐based measurements. The analyses also reveal that the TRMM‐3B42 and IMERG data sets are able to represent the large‐scale monsoon rainfall spatial features but are having region‐specific biases. The IMERG shows significant improvement in low rainfall estimates compared to the TRMM‐3B42 for selected regions. In the spatial distribution, the IMERG shows higher rain rates compared to the TRMM‐3B42, due to its enhanced spatial and temporal resolutions. Apart from this, the characteristics of raindrop size distribution (DSD) obtained from the GPM mission dual‐frequency precipitation radar is assessed over the complex mountain terrain site in the Western Ghats, India, using the DSD measured by a Joss‐Waldvogel disdrometer.

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“…The characteristic feature around this region of WG is that the rainfall from the southwest monsoon gradually increases along slope of western part of the mountain but finally decreases when coming down to eastern part. Although some other documentation could be found related to the precipitation characteristics over this region (Konwar et al, 2014;Deshpande et al, 2015;Das et al, 2017) but the role of clouds and its relation with the large-scale phenomena during the intra-seasonal phases has not been documented till now. They pointed out that the propagation of the convective cells, which align in the east-west direction of the mountain, are steered by the large-scale winds in the lower level.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 96%

Unraveling of cloud types during phases of monsoon intra‐seasonal oscillations by a Ka‐band Doppler weather radar

Chakravarty

Pokhrel

Kalshetti

et al. 2018

Atmospheric Science Letters

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Funding information Ministry of Earth SciencesGround-based cloud radar has been used for the first time in the Indian subcontinent to explore the cloud population during the break, transition and active phases of monsoon intra-seasonal oscillation over a region in the Western Ghats mountain. The synergetic use of in situ measurements along with the supporting large-scale microphysical features from the reanalysis data has been utilized in order to have a closer look of the morphology of clouds along with its transition during the intra-seasonal phases. It has been observed that the active phase is dominated by deep clouds (~41%) along with some shallow (~28%) and congestus clouds (~29%) while the break phases are dominated by the shallow clouds (~72%) during precipitating and high-level cirrus clouds (~65.22%) during the non-precipitating times. The role of middle level moisture for modulating the nature of the clouds along with its role in determining the latent heating profile over the same region has also been presented.

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Raindrop size distribution of different cloud types over the Western Ghats using simultaneous measurements from Micro-Rain Radar and disdrometer

Cited by 86 publications

References 43 publications

Observed Vertical Structure of Convection During Dry and Wet Summer Monsoon Epochs Over the Western Ghats

Observed Vertical Structure of Convection During Dry and Wet Summer Monsoon Epochs Over the Western Ghats

The assessment of Global Precipitation Measurement estimates over the Indian subcontinent

Unraveling of cloud types during phases of monsoon intra‐seasonal oscillations by a Ka‐band Doppler weather radar

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