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Gao et al. 2005
Gao, S., Cui, X., Zhou, Y. and Li, X. (2005). Surface rainfall processes as simulated in a cloud-resolving model. Journal of Geophysical Research 110: doi: 10.1029/2004JD005467. issn: 0148-0227.

Surface rain rate can be simply formulated with the sum of moisture and cloud sources/sinks. In this study the moisture sink comprises the local moisture change, moisture convergence (with an imposed vertical velocity), and surface evaporation, whereas the cloud source/sink comprises the local hydrometeor change since the cyclic boundary condition leads to zero hydrometeor convergence. The sources/sinks and their contributions to the surface rain rate are examined based on hourly zonal mean simulation data from a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model. The model is forced by the large-scale vertical velocity, zonal wind, and horizontal advections obtained from Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean-Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE). Although variation in the moisture sink largely accounts for much of the variation in the surface rain rate, the cloud source/sink may modify the surface rain rate significantly. The magnitude of the cloud source/sink increases when the zonal mean surface rain rate increases from 0 to 1 mm h-1, and it decreases when the rain rate increases from 1 to 2 mm h-1. The cloud source/sink is further analyzed by breaking it into ice and water hydrometeors. The ice hydrometeors may account for more contributions to the cloud variations than the water hydrometeors, and their growth may lead the surface rain rate by 1--2 hours.

BACKGROUND DATA FILES

Abstract

Keywords
Atmospheric Processes, Precipitation, Atmospheric Processes, Tropical meteorology, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Cloud physics and chemistry, Atmospheric Composition and Structure, Constituent sources and sinks, surface rain rate, moisture and cloud sources/sinks, Cloud-Resolving Model
Journal
Journal of Geophysical Research
http://www.agu.org/journals/jb/
Publisher
American Geophysical Union
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