Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Effects of time-dependent large-scale forcing, solar zenith angle, and sea surface temperature on time-mean rainfall: a partitioning analysis based on surface rainfall budget

  • Original Paper
  • Published:
Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Effects of time-dependent large-scale forcing, solar zenith angle, and sea surface temperature on time-mean rainfall during the Tropical Ocean Global Atmosphere Coupled Ocean–Atmosphere Response Experiment (TOGA COARE) are examined through a partitioning analysis of a series of sensitivity cloud-resolving model experiment data based on surface rainfall budget. The model is forced by time-dependent large-scale forcing (LSF), solar zenith angle (SZA), and sea surface temperature (SST) in the control experiment and is forced only by either time-dependent LSF, SZA, or SST while others are replaced with their time averages in the sensitivity experiments. The rainfall associated with water vapor divergence and local atmospheric drying and hydrometeor loss/convergence has the largest contribution to total rainfall among eight rainfall types. The largest rainfall contribution is increased in the simulations where either time-dependent LSF, SZA, or SST is replaced with its average, whereas it is decreased in the simulation where COARE-derived large-scale vertical velocity is replaced with zero vertical velocity. The contribution of the rainfall associated with water vapor convergence to total rainfall is decreased in the simulations with time-mean LSF, SZA, and SST, whereas it is increased in the simulation without large-scale vertical velocity.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Fig. 1
Fig. 2
Fig. 3
Fig. 4

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  • Chou M-D, Suarez MJ (1994): An efficient thermal infrared radiation parameterization for use in general circulation model. NASA Tech Memo 104606, vol 3, NASA/Goddard Space Flight Center, Code 913, Greenbelt, MD 20771

  • Chou M-D, Kratz DP, Ridgway W (1991) Infrared radiation parameterization in numerical climate models. J Clim 4:424–437

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Chou M-D, Suarez MJ, Ho C-H, Yan MM-H, Lee K-T (1998) Parameterizations for cloud overlapping and shortwave single scattering properties for use in general circulation and cloud ensemble models. J Atmos Sci 55:201–214

    Google Scholar 

  • Cui X, Li X (2006) Role of surface evaporation in surface rainfall processes. J Geophys Res, 111. doi:10.1029/2005JD006876

  • Gao S, Li X (2008) Cloud-resolving modeling of convective processes. Springer, Berlin, pp 206

  • Gao S, Li X (2010a) Effects of time-dependent large-scale forcing, solar zenith angle, and sea surface temperature on time-mean tropical rainfall processes. Meteor Atmos Phys 106:95–105

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao S, Li X (2010b) Precipitation equations and their applications to the analysis of diurnal variation of tropical oceanic rainfall. J Geophys Res 115:D08204. doi:10.1029/2009JD012452

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao S, Cui X, Zhou Y, Li X (2005) Surface rainfall processes as simulated in a cloud resolving model. J Geophys Res 110:D10202. doi:10.1029/2004JD005467

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Gao S, Zhou Y, Li X (2007) Effects of diurnal variations on tropical equilibrium states: A two-dimensional cloud-resolving modeling study. J Atmos Sci 64:656–664

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Krueger SK, Fu Q, Liou KN, Chin H-NS (1995) Improvement of an ice-phase microphysics parameterization for use in numerical simulations of tropical convection. J Appl Meteor 34:281–287

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Sui C-H, Lau K-M, Chou M-D (1999) Large-scale forcing and cloud-radiation interaction in the tropical deep convective regime. J Atmos Sci 56:3028–3042

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Li X, Sui C-H, Lau K-M (2002) Precipitation efficiency in the tropical deep convective regime: A 2-D cloud resolving modeling study. J Meteor Soc Jpn 80:205–212

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Lin Y-L, Farley RD, Orville HD (1983) Bulk parameterization of the snow field in a cloud model. J Clim Appl Meteor 22:1065–1092

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutledge SA, Hobbs PV (1983) The mesoscale and microscale structure and organization of clouds and precipitation in midlatitude cyclones. Part VIII: a model for the “seeder-feeder” process in warm-frontal rainbands. J Atmos Sci 40:1185–1206

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Rutledge SA, Hobbs PV (1984) The mesoscale and microscale structure and organization of clouds and precipitation in midlatitude cyclones. Part XII: a disgnostic modeling study of precipitation development in narrow cold-frontal rainbands. J Atmos Sci 41:2949–2972

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Shen X, Wang Y, Zhang N, Li X (2010) Precipitation and cloud statistics in the deep tropical convective regime. J Geophys Res 115:D24205. doi:10.1029/2010JD014481

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soong ST, Ogura Y (1980) Response of trade wind cumuli to large-scale processes. J Atmos Sci 37:2035–2050

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Soong ST, Tao WK (1980) Response of deep tropical cumulus clouds to mesoscale processes. J Atmos Sci 37:2016–2034

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Sui C-H, Lau K-M, Tao W-K, Simpson J (1994) The tropical water and energy cycles in a cumulus ensemble model. Part I: equilibrium climate. J Atmos Sci 51:711–728

    Google Scholar 

  • Tao W-K, Simpson J (1993) The Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model. Part I: model description. Terr Atmos Ocean Sci 4:35–72

    Google Scholar 

  • Tao W-K, Simpson J, McCumber M (1989) An ice-water saturation adjustment. Mon Wea Rev 117:231–235

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Tao W-K, Simpson J, Sui C-H, Ferrier B, Lang S, Scala J, Chou M-D, Pickering K (1993) Heating, moisture and water budgets of tropical and midlatitude squall lines: comparisons and sensitivity to longwave radiation. J Atmos Sci 50:673–690

    Google Scholar 

  • Weller RA, Anderson SP (1996) Surface meteorology and air-sea fluxes in the western equatorial Pacific warm pool during TOGA COARE. J Clim 9:1959–1990

    Article  Google Scholar 

  • Zhou Y, Li X (2009) Sensitivity of convective and stratiform rainfall to sea surface temperature. Atmos Res 92:212–219

    Article  Google Scholar 

Download references

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Prof. M. Zhang, the State University of New York at Stony brook, for his TOGA COARE forcing data and the two anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. This work was supported by the National Key Basic Research and Development Project of China No. 2009CB421505, the National Natural Sciences Foundation of China under the Grant No. 40930950 and 41075043.

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Laboratory of Cloud-Precipitation Physics and Severe Storms (LACS), Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Chinese Academy of Sciences, Beijing, 100029, China

    Shouting Gao

  2. Center for Satellite Applications and Research, NESDIS, NOAA, Camp Springs, Maryland, USA

    Xiaofan Li

Authors
  1. Shouting Gao
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

  2. Xiaofan Li
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Corresponding author

Correspondence to Shouting Gao.

Additional information

Responsible editor: J. Fasullo.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Gao, S., Li, X. Effects of time-dependent large-scale forcing, solar zenith angle, and sea surface temperature on time-mean rainfall: a partitioning analysis based on surface rainfall budget. Meteorol Atmos Phys 113, 1–10 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-011-0139-7

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Published:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00703-011-0139-7

Keywords

Search

Navigation