Polarimetric Radar Characteristics of Simulated and Observed Intense Convective Cores for a Midlatitude Continental and Tropical Maritime Environment

This study contrasts midlatitude continental and tropical maritime deep convective cores using polarimetric radar observables and retrievals from selected deep convection episodes during the MC3E and TWPICE field campaigns. The continental convective cores produce stronger radar reflectivities throu...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:	Journal of hydrometeorology 2020-03, Vol.21 (3), p.501-517
Main Authors:	Matsui, Toshi, Dolan, Brenda, Iguchi, Takamichi, Rutledge, Steven A., Tao, Wei-Kuo, Lang, Stephen
Format:	Article
Language:	eng
Subjects:	Aerosols Aircraft Climate Computer simulation Convection Cores Crystal structure Crystals Earth Resources And Remote Sensing Hydrometeor profiles Hydrometeors Ice Ice crystals Ice particles Meteorology And Climatology Microphysics Orientation Polarimetric radar Precipitation Profiles Radar Radar polarimetry Radar reflectivity Rain Raindrop sizes Raindrops Reflectance Tropical climate
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Summary:	This study contrasts midlatitude continental and tropical maritime deep convective cores using polarimetric radar observables and retrievals from selected deep convection episodes during the MC3E and TWPICE field campaigns. The continental convective cores produce stronger radar reflectivities throughout the profiles, while maritime convective cores produce more positive differential reflectivity Z dr and larger specific differential phase K dp above the melting level. Hydrometeor identification retrievals revealed the presence of large fractions of rimed ice particles (snow aggregates) in the continental (maritime) convective cores, consistent with the Z dr and K dp observations. The regional cloud-resolving model simulations with bulk and size-resolved bin microphysics are conducted for the selected cases, and the simulation outputs are converted into polarimetric radar signals and retrievals identical to the observational composites. Both the bulk and the bin microphysics reproduce realistic land and ocean (L-O) contrasts in reflectivity, polarimetric variables of rain drops, and hydrometeor profiles, but there are still large uncertainties in describing Z dr and K dp of ice crystals associated with the ice particle shapes/orientation assumptions. Sensitivity experiments are conducted by swapping background aerosols between the continental and maritime environments, revealing that background aerosols play a role in shaping the distinct L-O contrasts in radar reflectivity associated with raindrop sizes, in addition to the dominant role of background thermodynamics.
ISSN:	1525-755X 1525-7541