Microstructures and precipitation development in cumulus and small cumulonimbus clouds over the warm pool of the tropical Pacific Ocean

Abstract

AbstractIn situ airborne measurements obtained in convective clouds in the vicinity of the Marshall Islands on 15 days in July and August 1999 are used to determine the microphysical structures and precipitation‐producing mechanisms in these clouds. The liquid water contents of the clouds were generally well below adiabatic values, even in newly risen turrets. This is attributed to the entrainment of ambient air and to the very efficient removal of cloud water by the collision and coalescence of drops. The formation of raindrops began when the concentration of droplets with radii <15 µm exceeded ∼3 cm−3 or, equivalently, when the effective cloud drop radius reached ∼ 13 µm. Clouds rained when their depth exceeded ∼1.5 km. Due to rainout, the effective radius of cloud droplets began decreasing ∼2–4 km above cloud base.Extremely high concentrations of ice particles (often >500 litre−1) formed very rapidly at temperatures between −4 and −10 °C. High‐resolution imagery of these particles, which were primarily sheaths, needles, frozen drops and irregular ice fragments, indicates that the high concentrations of ice were initiated by the freezing of individual drops, some of which fragmented upon freezing, accompanied by ice splinter production during riming. However, for ice particles < 100 µm in maximum dimension, frozen drops and ice fragments were much more numerous than columnar ice crystals, the latter being indicative of ice splinter production. Narrow (10–50 m wide) streamers of precipitation containing large (<3 mm diameter) solid and liquid particles were often encountered in growing clouds. It is proposed that the particles in these streamers grew rapidly by riming in water‐rich zones and, under appropriate conditions, the ice particles produced by both drop fragmentation and riming resulted in exceptionally high localized concentrations of ice. Convective clouds consisting entirely of liquid water produced rain rates that were similar to those from deep convective clouds containing ice.Since the concentration of drizzle and raindrops within a few kilometres of cloud base was highly correlated with cloud depth, and therefore cloud top temperature, the concentration of raindrops in cumulus and cumulo‐nimbus clouds over the warm pool of the tropical Pacific Ocean can be inferred from satellite measurements of cloud top temperatures. Copyright © 2005 Royal Meteorological Society.