Abstract
A multi-sensor analysis of the characteristics of electrified and non-electrified clouds along with their impact on the surface-based raindrop size distribution (DSD) during the inter-seasonal phases of Indian summer monsoon over a heavy precipitation region of Western Ghat (WG) has been highlighted in the present paper. The analysis reveals that during the pre-monsoon (monsoon) months, raindrops of larger diameter dominate the rainfall evolving from the non-electrified (electrified) clouds compared to the rainfall evolving from the electrified (non-electrified) ones. The complex relationship of the convective rainfall with highly charged electrified clouds forces the smaller drops aloft and thereby allowing the larger drops to precipitate locally during the pre-monsoon season. While for the monsoon months, as most of the rainfall originates from the deep clouds, the chances of drops to break-up/evaporate is comparatively less for the precipitation evolving from electrified clouds with charged droplets with respect to the non-electrified ones. Hence, drops of larger diameter dominate the monsoon rainfall associated with lightning. Correspondingly, the paper also highlighted a case study of the changing morphology of the vertical structure of clouds and surface precipitation with the evolution of lightning during various stages of a typical rainfall event over the orographic region of WG.
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Acknowledgements
IITM is funded by the Ministry of Earth Sciences, Government of India. We thank the Director, IITM for his continuous support and encouragement. We are grateful to the Scientific and Technical staffs of IITM, Pune, working in the Radar site at Mandhardev for maintaining the Radar and other Instruments. At the same time, we sincerely thank Dr S D Pawar and Mr. Manoj Domkawale for providing the Maharashtra Lighting Detection Network (MLDN) data. The authors also like to thank the Editor, Associate Editor and other two anonymous reviewers for their critical and constructive comments related to the improvement of the manuscript.
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Chakravarty, K., Murugavel, P., Christy, A.A. et al. Impact of electrified and non-electrified clouds on the inter-seasonal characteristics of surface-based precipitation. J Earth Syst Sci 129, 169 (2020). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01432-x
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s12040-020-01432-x