Statistical characteristics of raindrop size distribution during rainy seasons in Complicated Mountain Terrain

Mao, Wenqian; Zhang, Wenyu; Kou, Menggang

doi:10.5194/hess-2022-66

Cited by 2 publications

(2 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…As the "water tower of Central Asia", it is also the region with the richest water resources in arid Central Asia and plays a key role in water security [35]. There are many studies on the characteristics of DSD in mountainous areas, and most of the observation points are at the foot of high mountain slopes or in the middle and lower parts of valleys [23,[36][37][38][39][40][41]. Restricted by terrain and alpine conditions, there are few meteorological stations distributed in alpine areas.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China

Chen,

Wang,

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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As a key component of the hydrological cycle, knowledge and comprehension of precipitation formation and evolution are of leading significance. This study investigates the statistical characteristics of raindrop size distribution for heavy precipitation events with observations collected by a Present Weather Sensor (PWS100) disdrometer located in the alpine area of eastern Tianshan, China. The characteristics are quantified based on heavy rain, heavy snow, and hail precipitation events classified using the rainfall intensity and the precipitation-related weather codes (US National Weather Service). On average, the heavy precipitation events in the headwaters of the Urumqi River are dominated by medium-sized (2–4 mm) raindrops. As well, we investigate mass-weighted mean diameter–normalized intercept parameter scatterplots, which demonstrate that the heavy precipitation events in alpine regions of the Tianshan Mountains can be identified as maritime-like clusters. The concentration of raindrops in heavy precipitation is the highest overall, while the concentration of raindrops in heavy snow is the lowest when the diameter is lower than 1.3 mm. The power–law relationships of radar reflectivity (Z) and rain rate (R) [Z = ARb] for the heavy rain, heavy snow, and hail precipitation events are also calculated. The Z–R relationship of heavy rain and heavy snow in this work has a lower coefficient value of A (10 and 228.7, respectively) and a higher index value of b (2.6 and 2.1, respectively), and the hail events are the opposite (A = 551.5, b = 1.3), compared to the empirical relation (Z = 300R1.4). Furthermore, the possible thermodynamics and general atmospheric circulation that cause the distinctions in the raindrop size distribution characteristics between alpine areas and other parts of the Tianshan Mountains are also debated in this work. The headwaters of the Urumqi River in alpine areas have relatively colder and wetter surroundings in the near-surface layer than the foothills of the Tianshan Mountains during the precipitation process. Meanwhile, a lower temperature, a higher relative humidity, a more efficient collision coalescence mechanism, and glacier local microclimate effects (temperature jump, inverse glacier temperature, glacier wind) at the headwaters of the Urumqi River during the precipitation process are probably partly responsible for more medium- and large-size drops in the mountains.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China

Chen,

Wang,

et al. 2023

Remote Sensing

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“…Moreover, the DSD characteristics of Naqu (4,500 m a.s.l) and Motuo (1,275 m a.s.l) in the hinterland of the Tibetan Plateau had shown that the shape of the average DSD under different rainfall rates was similar and the concentration of large raindrop number increased with the increase of rainfall intensity (Chen et al, 2017;Wang et al, 2021), and the DSD exhibit little variance during the daytime and nighttime for stratiform precipitation, with large variance for convective precipitation (Chen et al, 2017). Mao et al (2022) studied the DSD characteristics of Qilian mountains on the southern slopes, northern slopes and inside, and found that the number concentration of small and large raindrops on the inside and south slope were greater than on the north slope, but midsize raindrops were fewer. The DSD spectrum of inside mountains was more variable and significantly differ from the north slopes.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Raindrop size distribution characteristics in summer of a nival glacial zone in eastern Tianshan, Central Asia

Chen

Li²,

Wang³

et al. 2022

Front. Earth Sci.

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Precipitation is a key component of the hydrological cycle, which is critical to understanding its formation and evolution. In this study, based on the observation data of the PWS100 located at the meteorological observation site at the terminal of Urumqi Glacier No. 1, eastern Tianshan Mountains, the statistical characteristics of the summer raindrop size distribution (DSD) were analyzed, and the DSD characteristics of five different rainfall rates(R) and two rainfall types (convective and stratiform) were investigated for the daytime and nighttime. The average raindrop spectral width was the largest in class III (1 < R < 5 mm h−1). The result showed that the raindrop concentration increased with the rainfall rate. The maximum raindrop concentration was at class IV (5 < R < 10 mm h−1), when the raindrop diameter was higher than 1.74 mm. The small and medium size raindrops played a dominant role in precipitation composition in the head watershed of the Urumqi River, contributing 98% of the total raindrop. The convective precipitation at the headwaters was divided into continental clusters. The stratiform/convective Dm-log10Nw was characterized by a large mass-weighted mean diameter Dm = 1.523/2.608, and a generalized intercept log10Nw = 2.841/3.469. N(D) of convective precipitation was significantly different between the daytime and nighttime, while that of stratiform precipitation was almost the same. The constraint relationship between R-Dm and R-log10Nw of these two precipitation types was deduced, the exponent of the R-log10Nw relationship of the two precipitation types was negative, and the Dm value of stratiform precipitation tended to be stable at a higher rainfall rate (1–2 mm). Finally, we deduced the power-law relationship between radar reflectivity (Z) and rain rate (R) [Z = A*Rb] for stratiform and convective precipitation at the headwaters. Z = 698.8R2.0 was for stratiform, and Z = 47.1R2.0 was for convective. These results, for the first time, offer insights into the microphysical nature of precipitation in the head watershed of the Urumqi River during the summer and provide essential information that could be useful for precipitation retrievals based on weather radar observations.

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Statistical characteristics of raindrop size distribution during rainy seasons in Complicated Mountain Terrain

Cited by 2 publications

References 36 publications

Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China

Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China

Raindrop size distribution characteristics in summer of a nival glacial zone in eastern Tianshan, Central Asia

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