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Precipitation-Top Heights of Heavy Orographic Rainfall in the Asian Monsoon Region
- Source :
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences. 73:3009-3024
- Publication Year :
- 2016
- Publisher :
- American Meteorological Society, 2016.
-
Abstract
- Over coastal mountain ranges of the Asian monsoon region, heavy orographic rainfall is frequently associated with low precipitation-top heights (PTHs). This leads to conspicuous underestimation of rainfall using microwave radiometer algorithms, which conventionally assume that heavy rainfall is associated with high PTHs. Although topographically forced upward motion is important for rainfall occurrence, it does not fully constrain precipitation profiles in this region. This paper focuses on the thermodynamic characteristics of the atmosphere that determine PTHs in tropical coastal mountains of Asia (Western Ghats, Arakan Yoma, Bilauktaung, Cardamom, Annam Range, and the Philippines). PTHs of heavy orographic rainfall generally decrease with enhanced low- and midlevel relative humidity, especially during the summer monsoon. In contrast, PTHs over the Annam Range of the Indochina Peninsula increase with enhanced low-level and midlevel relative humidity during the transition from boreal summer to winter monsoon, demonstrating that convection depth is not simply a function of humidity. Instead, PTHs of heavy orographic rainfall decreased with increasing low-level stability for all monsoon regions considered in this study, as well as the Annam Range during the transition from boreal summer to winter monsoon. Therefore, low-level static stability, which inhibits cloud growth and promotes cloud detrainment, appears to be the most important parameter in determining PTHs of heavy rainfall in the Asian monsoon region.
- Subjects :
- Atmospheric Science
010504 meteorology & atmospheric sciences
Microwave radiometer
Orography
010502 geochemistry & geophysics
Monsoon
Atmospheric sciences
01 natural sciences
Atmosphere
Climatology
Convective storm detection
Environmental science
East Asian Monsoon
Relative humidity
Precipitation
0105 earth and related environmental sciences
Subjects
Details
- ISSN :
- 15200469 and 00224928
- Volume :
- 73
- Database :
- OpenAIRE
- Journal :
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Accession number :
- edsair.doi...........600e79d0b6055ad9a6378266aacd125c