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Structural characteristics of atmospheric temperature and humidity inside clouds of convective and stratiform precipitation in the rainy season over East Asia

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Abstract

In this study, a merged dataset constructed from Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission precipitation radar rain products and Integrated Global Radiosonde Archive data is used to investigate the thermal structural characteristics of convective and stratiform precipitation in the rainy season (May–August) of 1998–2012 over East Asia. The results show that the storm tops for convective precipitation are higher than those for stratiform precipitation, because of the more unstable atmospheric motions for convective precipitation. Moreover, the storm tops are higher at 1200 UTC than at 0000 UTC over land regions for both convective and stratiform precipitation, and vice versa for ocean region. Additionally, temperature anomaly patterns inside convective and stratiform precipitating clouds show a negative anomaly of about 0–2 K, which results in cooling effects in the lower troposphere. This cooling is more obvious at 1200 UTC for stratiform precipitation. The positive anomaly that appears in the middle troposphere is more than 2 K, with the strongest warming at 300 hPa. Relative humidity anomaly patterns show a positive anomaly in the middle troposphere (700–500 hPa) prior to the occurrence of the two types of precipitation, and the increase in moisture is evident for stratiform precipitation.

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Acknowledgements

We thanks the GSFC for providing the TRMM PR 2A25 data, the NCDC for providing the IGRA data, and the NOAA-CIRES Climate Diagnosis Center for providing the NCEP data. Additionally, we appreciate the constructive suggestions of the two anonymous reviewers.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Earth and Space Sciences, University of Science and Technology of China, Hefei, 230026, China

    Rui Wang & Yunfei Fu

  2. State Key Laboratory of Severe Weather, Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, 100081, China

    Yunfei Fu

  3. Key Laboratory of Atmospheric Sciences and Satellite Remote Sensing of Anhui Province, Anhui Institute of Meteorological Sciences, Hefei, 230031, China

    Yunfei Fu

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  1. Rui Wang
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Correspondence to Yunfei Fu.

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Supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (91337213, 41230419, and 41505033) and China Meteorological Administration Special Public Welfare Research Fund (GYHY201406001 and GYHY201306077).

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Wang, R., Fu, Y. Structural characteristics of atmospheric temperature and humidity inside clouds of convective and stratiform precipitation in the rainy season over East Asia. J Meteorol Res 31, 890–905 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s13351-017-7038-x

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