English
 
Help Privacy Policy Disclaimer
  Advanced SearchBrowse

Item

ITEM ACTIONSEXPORT
 
 
DownloadE-Mail
  Probing the precipitation life cycle by iterative rain cell tracking

Moseley, C., Berg, P., & Haerter, J. O. (2013). Probing the precipitation life cycle by iterative rain cell tracking. Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres, 118, 13361-13370. doi:10.1002/2013JD020868.

Item is

Files

show Files
hide Files
:
jgrd51026.pdf (Publisher version), 2MB
Name:
jgrd51026.pdf
Description:
-
OA-Status:
Visibility:
Public
MIME-Type / Checksum:
application/pdf / [MD5]
Technical Metadata:
Copyright Date:
-
Copyright Info:
-
License:
-

Locators

show

Creators

show
hide
 Creators:
Moseley, Christopher1, Author           
Berg, Peter, Author
Haerter, J. O., Author           
Affiliations:
1Climate Modelling, The Atmosphere in the Earth System, MPI for Meteorology, Max Planck Society, Bundesstraße 53, 20146 Hamburg, DE, ou_913569              

Content

show
hide
Free keywords: Clausius-Clapeyron relation; convective life cycle; extreme precipitation; radar analysis; rain cell tracking
 Abstract: Monitoring the life cycle of convective rain cells requires a Lagrangian viewpoint where the observer moves with the dominant background flow. To adopt such a moving reference frame, we design, validate, and apply a simple rain cell tracking method - which we term iterative rain cell tracking (IRT) - for spatio-temporal precipitation data. IRT iteratively identifies the formation and dissipation of rain cells and determines the large-scale flow. The iteration is repeated until reaching convergence. As validated using reanalysis wind speeds, repeated iterations lead to substantially increased agreement of the background flow field and an increased number of complete tracks. Our method is thereby able to monitor the growth and intensity profiles of rain cells and is applied to a high-resolution (5 min and 1×1 km2) data set of radar-derived rainfall intensities over Germany. We then combine this data set with surface temperature observations and synoptic observations to group tracks according to convective and stratiform conditions. Convective tracks show clear life cycles in intensity, with peaks shifted off-center toward the beginning of the track, whereas stratiform tracks have comparatively featureless intensity profiles. Our results show that the convective life cycle can lead to convection-dominating precipitation extremes at short time scales, while track-mean intensities may vary much less between the two types. The observed features become more pronounced as surface temperature increases, and in the case of convection even exceeded the rates expected from the Clausius-Clapeyron relation. Key Points Convective rain intensities can exceed stratiform rain on short timescales Temperature affects convection life cycle Stratiform events lack life cycle ©2013. American Geophysical Union. All Rights Reserved.

Details

show
hide
Language(s): eng - English
 Dates: 20132013-12-27
 Publication Status: Issued
 Pages: -
 Publishing info: -
 Table of Contents: -
 Rev. Type: Peer
 Identifiers: DOI: 10.1002/2013JD020868
 Degree: -

Event

show

Legal Case

show

Project information

show

Source 1

show
hide
Title: Journal of Geophysical Research-Atmospheres
Source Genre: Journal
 Creator(s):
Affiliations:
Publ. Info: Washington, D.C. : American Geophysical Union
Pages: - Volume / Issue: 118 Sequence Number: - Start / End Page: 13361 - 13370 Identifier: ISSN: 0148-0227
CoNE: https://pure.mpg.de/cone/journals/resource/991042728714264_1