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Variations of Raindrop Size Distribution and Radar Retrieval in Outer Rainbands of Typhoon Mangkhut (2018)

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Abstract

The evolution of the microphysical properties of raindrops from Typhoon Mangkhut’s outer rainbands as the storm made landfall in South China in September 2018 was investigated. The observations by three two-dimensional video disdrometers deployed in central Guangdong Province were analyzed concurrently. It was found that the radial distribution of the median volume diameter (D0) and normalized intercept parameter (Nw) varied in different stages, and that raindrops smaller than 3.0 mm contributed more than 99% of the total precipitation. Considering the characteristics of precipitation in the typhoon outer rainband, a modified stratiform rain (SR)—convective rain (CR) separator line is proposed based on D0 and Nw scatterplots. Meanwhile, an “S—C likelihood index” is introduced, which was used to classify three rain types (SR, CR, and mixed rain). The CR results were highly consistent with those of the improved typhoon precipitation classification method based on rain rate. By calculating effectively the radar reflectivity factor (Ze) in the Ku and Ka bands, D0Ze and NwD0 empirical relations were thereby derived for improving the accuracy of rainfall retrieval. Among the four quantitative precipitation estimators using S-band dual-polarimetric radar parameters simulated by the T-matrix method, the estimator that adopted the specific differential phase and differential reflectivity was found to be the most effective for both SR and CR.

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Acknowledgments

Thanks are given to Tengfei Zheng from the Guangzhou Institute of Tropical and Marine Meteorology of China Meteorological Administration for help in processing the observations of the two-dimensional video disdrometer (2DVD). We are also grateful to Qin Huang from the University of Auckland for invaluable assistance throughout the preparation of the original manuscript. Finally, we thank the Editor and all anonymous reviewers for their valuable suggestions that have helped improve this paper.

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Correspondence to Yue Zhou.

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Supported by the National Key Research and Development Program of China (2018YFC1507905), National Natural Science Foundation of China (41675136 and 41875170), National Undergraduate Innovation and Entrepreneurship Training Program (201910300040Z), Opening Project of Key Laboratory for Aerosol—Cloud—Precipitation of China Meteorological Administration (KDW1405), Natural Science Foundation of Guangdong Province of China—Major Basic Research and Cultivation Projects (2015A030308014), and Guangxi Key Research and Development Program (AB20159013).

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Lyu, J., Xiao, H., Du, Y. et al. Variations of Raindrop Size Distribution and Radar Retrieval in Outer Rainbands of Typhoon Mangkhut (2018). J Meteorol Res 36, 500–519 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-022-1134-2

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-022-1134-2

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