TY - JOUR
T1 - Nonlinear response of hail precipitation rate to environmental moisture content
T2 - A real case modeling study of an episodic midlatitude severe convective event
AU - Li, Mingxin
AU - Zhang, Fuqing
AU - Zhang, Qinghong
AU - Harrington, Jerry Y.
AU - Kumjian, Matthew R.
N1 - Funding Information:
Computing is conducted at the Texas Advanced Computing Center where the WRF model output is stored that can be made freely available upon request. This study is supported by the Chinese National Science Foundation under grants 41330421 and 41461164006. J. Harrington was supported by the U.S. Department of Energy’s Atmospheric Science Program Atmospheric System Research, and Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research Program under grant DESC0012827. The first author conducted the research while a visiting scholar at the Pennsylvania State University. M.K. was partially supported by a grant from the Insurance Institute for Business and Home Safety. The first author thanks Yaosheng Chen and Bicheng Chen from Pennsylvania State University for helpful discussions and suggestions. The first and third authors gratefully acknowledge the financial support from the China Scholarship Council.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2017. American Geophysical Union. All rights reserved.
PY - 2017
Y1 - 2017
N2 - The dependence of hail production on initial moisture content in a simulated midlatitude episodic convective event occurred in northeast China on 10-11 June 2005 was investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with a double-moment microphysics scheme where both graupel and hail are considered. Three sensitivity experiments were performed by modifying the initial water vapor mixing ratio profile to 90% (“Q-10%"), 105% (“Q+5%"), and 110% (“Q+10%") of the initial conditions used for the control simulation. It was found that increasing the initial water vapor content caused the hail and total precipitation rates to increase during the first 5 h. The precipitation response to increasing water vapor content was monotonic for this first episode; however, for the event’s second episode, the hail precipitation rate responds to the initial water vapor profile nonlinearly, while the total precipitation rate responds mostly monotonically. In particular, simulation Q+5% achieves the largest hail production rate while simulation Q+10% has the largest total precipitation rate. In contrast, during the second episode simulation Q-10% has the strongest vertical motion, produces the most cloud ice and snow, but has the lowest hail production. Analysis shows that increasing the initial moisture content directly increases the precipitation during the first episode, which subsequently induces a stronger, longer-lasting cold pool that limits the development of deep convection during the second episode.
AB - The dependence of hail production on initial moisture content in a simulated midlatitude episodic convective event occurred in northeast China on 10-11 June 2005 was investigated using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with a double-moment microphysics scheme where both graupel and hail are considered. Three sensitivity experiments were performed by modifying the initial water vapor mixing ratio profile to 90% (“Q-10%"), 105% (“Q+5%"), and 110% (“Q+10%") of the initial conditions used for the control simulation. It was found that increasing the initial water vapor content caused the hail and total precipitation rates to increase during the first 5 h. The precipitation response to increasing water vapor content was monotonic for this first episode; however, for the event’s second episode, the hail precipitation rate responds to the initial water vapor profile nonlinearly, while the total precipitation rate responds mostly monotonically. In particular, simulation Q+5% achieves the largest hail production rate while simulation Q+10% has the largest total precipitation rate. In contrast, during the second episode simulation Q-10% has the strongest vertical motion, produces the most cloud ice and snow, but has the lowest hail production. Analysis shows that increasing the initial moisture content directly increases the precipitation during the first episode, which subsequently induces a stronger, longer-lasting cold pool that limits the development of deep convection during the second episode.
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U2 - 10.1002/2016JD026373
DO - 10.1002/2016JD026373
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:85021743009
VL - 122
SP - 6729
EP - 6747
JO - Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
JF - Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
SN - 2169-897X
IS - 13
ER -