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Characterization of Different Rainfall Types from Surface Observations Over a Tropical Location

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Abstract

This study characterizes different rainfall types using surface-based instruments (i.e. micro rain radar and laser precipitation monitor) installed at the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar Jatani, Odisha, India. A total of twelve rainfall cases including four from each season, i.e. pre-monsoon, monsoon and post-monsoon, are considered. The segregation of rainfall is carried out using radar reflectivity and rainfall intensity. In general, initial rainfall is dominantly convective and followed by a stratiform type. Two distinct maxima of radar reflectivity are noted at 3 and 5 km, suggesting the presence of high liquid water content and a melting band. The presence of liquid water content suggests occurrence of a warm rain process with shallow, intense convective cores. Results indicate a higher drop number density below 2 km with smaller size drops for convective rainfall and vice versa for the stratiform rainfall. Furthermore, Z–R relationships are computed for all the cases using a linear regression method, and the results suggest that the stratiform rainfall shows a higher slope parameter and lower intercept parameter as compared to convective rainfall. The distribution of drop number density shows a mono-modal and bimodal pattern for convective and stratiform rainfall, respectively.

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Acknowledgements

The authors would like to thank the Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar (grant no. A16ES09006) for providing research facilities and helpful assistance required for this purpose. Furthermore, our gratitude is extended to the funding agencies, namely the Ministry of Earth Sciences (MoES), India (RP-083), Department of Science and Technology (DST), India (RP-132), and Scientific and Engineering Board (SERB), India (RP-193), for their support to carry out this research.

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  1. School of Earth Ocean and Climate Sciences, Indian Institute of Technology Bhubaneswar, Argul, Jatani, Khurda, Odisha, 752050, India

    Anshul Sisodiya, Sandeep Pattnaik & Himadri Baisya

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  1. Anshul Sisodiya
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  2. Sandeep Pattnaik
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  3. Himadri Baisya
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Correspondence to Sandeep Pattnaik.

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Sisodiya, A., Pattnaik, S. & Baisya, H. Characterization of Different Rainfall Types from Surface Observations Over a Tropical Location. Pure Appl. Geophys. 177, 1111–1123 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00024-019-02338-6

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