ISSN 1006-9895

CN 11-1768/O4

Research on the Evolution Characteristics of Hydrometeors in a Thunderstorm Cell with X-Band Dual-Polarimetric Radar
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    Abstract:

    In order to understand the distribution and evolution of hydrometeors in thunderstorm cells, a fuzzy logic algorithm is applied to analyze the evolution characteristics of hydrometeors in a typical thunderstorm cell that occurred in Beijing by utilizing the dual-polarization radar parameters and environmental temperature. Furthermore, a wavelet de-noising method and a self-consistent method with constraints (SCWC) are combined to preprocess the data. The results are as follows. (1) According to the macroscopic characteristics of the thunderstorm cell, the process is divided into three stages, i.e. the development stage, the mature stage and the dissipation stage. The average heights of the cell are 11, 12 and 10 km, and the reflectivity can reach 40-45 dBZ, greater than 50 dBZ and 40-45dBZ in the three stages, respectively. Moreover, the percentages of graupels are 2%, 12% and 1% in the three stages. (2) The main microphysical processes and evolving characteristics in each stage are as follows. In the development stage, the main microphysical process below the freezing level is warm-cloud process with 5% of drizzle (DR) and 24% of rain (RA). A small amount of liquid hydrometeors rises to the layer above the freezing level, reacting with dry crystal (DC) and generating 1% of graupels, which actually is a weak cold cloud process. During the mature stage, there is an enhanced warm-cloud process with DR decreasing by a percentage of 2 and RA increasing by a percentage of 2. More liquid hydrometeors can rise to the layer above the freezing level and there is an enhanced cold cloud process with 4% of RA and 5% of DC converting to 7% of graupels. At the last stage, the liquid hydrometeors below 0℃ layer cannot rise to the layer above 0℃, which leads to weaker warm and cold cloud processes. DR increases by a percentage of 1 below the freezing level while DC increases by a percentage of 2, and graupels above the freezing level reduces by a percentage of 5. (3) Based on the above results and dynamic characteristic, a microphysical model of the thunderstorm cell's evolution process is established. This study is important for understanding the structure and microphysical processes of thunderstorm cells as well as improving the forecast of thunderstorm weather.

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History
  • Received:November 26,2016
  • Revised:
  • Adopted:
  • Online: November 10,2017
  • Published: