Orographic Modification of Precipitation Processes in Hurricane Karl (2010)

doi:10.1175/MWR-D-17-0014.1

Title: Orographic Modification of Precipitation Processes in Hurricane Karl (2010)

Full Record
Other Related Research

Abstract

Airborne radar data collected within Hurricane Karl (2010) provide a high-resolution glimpse of variations in the vertical precipitation structure around complex terrain in eastern Mexico. Widespread precipitation north of Karl’s track traced the strong gradient of terrain, suggesting orographic enhancement. Although the airborne radar did not sample the period of peak precipitation, time series of surface rainfall at three locations near the inner core show greater precipitation where flow was oriented to rise over the terrain. In regions of upslope flow, radar observations reveal reflectivity enhancement within 1–2 km of the surface. The shallow nature of the enhancement points to orographically generated cloud water accreted by falling drops as a mechanism consistent with prior studies, while the heterogeneous nature of the enhancement suggests shallow convection was playing a role. In contrast, regions of downslope flow were characterized by uniform reflectivity above the ground and fallstreaks originating above the melting level. Unlike most previously studied tropical cyclones passing over topography, Karl made landfall on a mountainous continent, not an island. As Karl weakened and decayed over land, the vertical structure of the radar echo deteriorated north of the storm center, and infrared satellite imagery revealed a strong reduction in the upper-levelmore »« less

Authors:

DeHart, Jennifer C. ^[1]; Houze, Jr., Robert A. ^[2]

Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, Washington
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Washington, Seattle, and Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington

Publication Date:: 2017-10-01

Research Org.:: Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)

Sponsoring Org.:: USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER) (SC-23); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Aeronautic and Space Administration (NASA)

OSTI Identifier:: 1399817

Alternate Identifier(s):: OSTI ID: 1431026

Grant/Contract Number:: NNX15AN52H; NNX12AJ82G; AGS-1503155; AC05-76RL01830

Resource Type:: Published Article

Journal Name:: Monthly Weather Review

Additional Journal Information:: Journal Name: Monthly Weather Review Journal Volume: 145 Journal Issue: 10; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-0644

Publisher:: American Meteorological Society

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

Subject:: 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; Tropical cyclones; Orographic effects; Radars/Radar observations; Field experiments

Citation Formats


                    DeHart, Jennifer C., and Houze, Jr., Robert A. Orographic Modification of Precipitation Processes in Hurricane Karl (2010).  United States: N. p., 2017. 
        Web.  doi:10.1175/MWR-D-17-0014.1.

Copy to clipboard


                    DeHart, Jennifer C., & Houze, Jr., Robert A. Orographic Modification of Precipitation Processes in Hurricane Karl (2010).  United States.  doi:10.1175/MWR-D-17-0014.1.

Copy to clipboard


                    DeHart, Jennifer C., and Houze, Jr., Robert A. Sun .  
        "Orographic Modification of Precipitation Processes in Hurricane Karl (2010)".  United States.  doi:10.1175/MWR-D-17-0014.1.

Copy to clipboard


                    
@article{osti_1399817,

  title        = {Orographic Modification of Precipitation Processes in Hurricane Karl (2010)},

  author       = {DeHart, Jennifer C. and Houze, Jr., Robert A.},

  abstractNote = {Airborne radar data collected within Hurricane Karl (2010) provide a high-resolution glimpse of variations in the vertical precipitation structure around complex terrain in eastern Mexico. Widespread precipitation north of Karl’s track traced the strong gradient of terrain, suggesting orographic enhancement. Although the airborne radar did not sample the period of peak precipitation, time series of surface rainfall at three locations near the inner core show greater precipitation where flow was oriented to rise over the terrain. In regions of upslope flow, radar observations reveal reflectivity enhancement within 1–2 km of the surface. The shallow nature of the enhancement points to orographically generated cloud water accreted by falling drops as a mechanism consistent with prior studies, while the heterogeneous nature of the enhancement suggests shallow convection was playing a role. In contrast, regions of downslope flow were characterized by uniform reflectivity above the ground and fallstreaks originating above the melting level. Unlike most previously studied tropical cyclones passing over topography, Karl made landfall on a mountainous continent, not an island. As Karl weakened and decayed over land, the vertical structure of the radar echo deteriorated north of the storm center, and infrared satellite imagery revealed a strong reduction in the upper-level cloud coverage; however, a small region of intense convection appeared and produced locally heavy rainfall as Karl was close to dissipation. In conclusion, these results indicate that orographic modification processes in a landfalling tropical cyclone are not static, and surface precipitation is highly sensitive to the changes.},

  doi          = {10.1175/MWR-D-17-0014.1},

  journal      = {Monthly Weather Review},

  number       = 10,

  volume       = 145,

  place        = {United States},

  year         = {2017},

  month        = {10}

}

Copy to clipboard

Journal Article:

Free Publicly Available Full Text

Publisher's Version of Record
DOI: 10.1175/MWR-D-17-0014.1

Other availability

Search WorldCat to find libraries that may hold this journal

Save / Share:

Export Metadata

Save to My Library

Similar Records in DOE PAGES and OSTI.GOV collections:

Use of ARM observations and numerical models to determine radiative and latent heating profiles of mesoscale convective systems for general circulation models

Technical Report Tao, Wei-Kuo ; Houze, Robert, A., Jr. ; Zeng, Xiping

This three-year project, in cooperation with Professor Bob Houze at University of Washington, has been successfully finished as planned. Both ARM (the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program) data and cloud-resolving model (CRM) simulations were used to identify the water budgets of clouds observed in two international field campaigns. The research results achieved shed light on several key processes of clouds in climate change (or general circulation models), which are summarized below. 1. Revealed the effect of mineral dust on mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) Two international field campaigns near a desert and a tropical coast provided unique data to drive and evaluatemore »« less
DOI: 10.2172/1068554

Full Text Available
Vertical Structure and Microphysical Characteristics of Frontal Systems Passing over a Three-Dimensional Coastal Mountain Range

Journal Article Zagrodnik, Joseph P. ; McMurdie, Lynn A. ; Houze, Robert A. ; ... - Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

As midlatitude cyclones pass over a coastal mountain range, the processes producing their clouds and precipitation are modified, leading to considerable spatial variability in precipitation amount and composition. Statistical diagrams of airborne precipitation radar transects, surface precipitation measurements, and particle size distributions are examined from nine cases observed during the Olympic Mountains Experiment (OLYMPEX). Although the pattern of windward enhancement and leeside diminishment of precipitation was omnipresent, the degree of modulation was largely controlled by the synoptic environment associated with the prefrontal, warm, and postfrontal sectors of midlatitude cyclones. Prefrontal sectors contained homogeneous stratiform precipitation with a slightly enhanced icemore »« less
DOI: 10.1175/jas-d-18-0279.1

Full Text Available
Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) Science Plan

Program Document Varble, Adam ; Nesbitt, Steve ; Salio, Paulo ; ...

General circulation models and downscaled regional models exhibit persistent biases in deep convective initiation location and timing, cloud top height, stratiform area and precipitation fraction, and anvil coverage. Despite important impacts on the distribution of atmospheric heating, moistening, and momentum, nearly all climate models fail to represent convective organization, while system evolution is not represented at all. Improving representation of convective systems in models requires characterization of their predictability as a function of environmental conditions, and this characterization depends on observing many cases of convective initiation, non-initiation, organization, and non-organization. The Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) experiment inmore »« less
Full Text Available
Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) Preliminary Science Plan

Program Document Varble, Adam ; Nesbitt, Steve ; Salio, Paola ; ...

General circulation models and downscaled regional models exhibit persistent biases in deep convective initiation location and timing, cloud top height, stratiform area and precipitation fraction, and anvil coverage. Despite important impacts on the distribution of atmospheric heating, moistening, and momentum, nearly all climate models fail to represent convective organization, while system evolution is not represented at all. Improving representation of convective systems in models requires characterization of their predictability as a function of environmental conditions, and this characterization depends on observing many cases of convective initiation, non-initiation, organization, and non-organization. The Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) experiment inmore »« less
Full Text Available
Using ARM Measurements to Understand and Reduce the Double ITCZ Biases in the Community Atmospheric Model

Technical Report Zhang, Minghua

1. Understanding of the observed variability of ITCZ in the equatorial eastern Pacific. The annual mean precipitation in the eastern Pacific has a maximum zonal band north of the equator in the ITCZ where the maximum SST is located. During the boreal spring (referring to February, March, and April throughout the present paper), because of the accumulated solar radiation heating and oceanic heat transport, a secondary maximum of SST exists in the southeastern equatorial Pacific. Associated with this warm SST is also a seasonal transitional maximum of precipitation in the same region in boreal spring, exhibited as a weak doublemore »« less
DOI: 10.2172/1334768

Full Text Available

Similar Records