A-Train estimates of the sensitivity of warm rain likelihood and
efficiency to cloud size
Abstract
The warm rain process is an important part of shallow cumulus convection
and can influence both cloud microphysics and cloud radiative effects.
Model studies suggest that as shallow cumulus grow in size, the
likelihood of warm rain increases due to a decreasing impact of
entrainment on cloud updrafts. This implies a reduction in evaporative
effects near cloud center that may result in more efficient conversion
from cloud water to precipitation as cloud size increases. While these
findings have been illustrated with cloud resolving models, the
likelihood of precipitation and the sensitivity of precipitation
efficiency to cloud size has not yet been tested by global observations.
A-Train satellite observations, with sensors sensitive to both cloud and
precipitation water, can be used to examine shallow cumulus behavior
with cloud size. We combine CloudSat and MODIS observations to create a
warm cloud climatology by identifying warm oceanic contiguous cloud
objects with top heights below the freezing level from August 2006 -
December 2010. The characteristics of each cloud object, including cloud
top height, along-track extent (size), vertical reflectivity gradients,
integrated cloud and precipitation water, and column water vapor (CWV)
environment, are calculated. As a proxy for warm rain efficiency, the
ratio of precipitation to cloud water is also analyzed for varying cloud
object sizes. For a fixed top height, our results show rain likelihood
increases with cloud size. Our initial results support the hypothesis
that as shallow cumulus size increases and/or environmental moisture
increases, shallow cumulus updrafts are able to support larger droplets
that are more likely to fall out as rain. Planned analysis will
determine how our proxy for warm rain efficiency changes with cloud
size.