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Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation

In the tropics, extreme precipitation events are often caused by mesoscale systems of organized, spatially clustered deep cumulonimbi, posing a substantial risk to life and property. While the clustering of convective clouds has been thought to strengthen precipitation rate, no quantitative estimate...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Angulo-Umana, Pedro, Kim, Daehyun
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: American Association for the Advancement of Science 2023
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9833657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36630505
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo5317
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author Angulo-Umana, Pedro
Kim, Daehyun
author_facet Angulo-Umana, Pedro
Kim, Daehyun
author_sort Angulo-Umana, Pedro
collection PubMed
description In the tropics, extreme precipitation events are often caused by mesoscale systems of organized, spatially clustered deep cumulonimbi, posing a substantial risk to life and property. While the clustering of convective clouds has been thought to strengthen precipitation rate, no quantitative estimates of this hypothesized enhancement exist. In this study, after isolating the effects of mesoscale convective clustering on precipitation, we find that strongly clustered oceanic convection precipitates more intensely than weakly clustered convection. We further show that this enhancement is primarily attributable to an increase in convective precipitation rate when the environment is less than 70% saturated, with increases in the size of the rainy stratiform region being of equal or greater importance when the environment is closer to saturation. Our results suggest that a correct representation of mesoscale organized convective systems in numerical weather and climate models is needed for accurate predictions of extreme precipitation events.
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spelling pubmed-98336572023-01-18 Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation Angulo-Umana, Pedro Kim, Daehyun Sci Adv Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences In the tropics, extreme precipitation events are often caused by mesoscale systems of organized, spatially clustered deep cumulonimbi, posing a substantial risk to life and property. While the clustering of convective clouds has been thought to strengthen precipitation rate, no quantitative estimates of this hypothesized enhancement exist. In this study, after isolating the effects of mesoscale convective clustering on precipitation, we find that strongly clustered oceanic convection precipitates more intensely than weakly clustered convection. We further show that this enhancement is primarily attributable to an increase in convective precipitation rate when the environment is less than 70% saturated, with increases in the size of the rainy stratiform region being of equal or greater importance when the environment is closer to saturation. Our results suggest that a correct representation of mesoscale organized convective systems in numerical weather and climate models is needed for accurate predictions of extreme precipitation events. American Association for the Advancement of Science 2023-01-11 /pmc/articles/PMC9833657/ /pubmed/36630505 http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo5317 Text en Copyright © 2023 The Authors, some rights reserved; exclusive licensee American Association for the Advancement of Science. No claim to original U.S. Government Works. Distributed under a Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial License 4.0 (CC BY-NC). https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/) , which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, so long as the resultant use is not for commercial advantage and provided the original work is properly cited.
spellingShingle Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences
Angulo-Umana, Pedro
Kim, Daehyun
Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
title Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
title_full Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
title_fullStr Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
title_full_unstemmed Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
title_short Mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
title_sort mesoscale convective clustering enhances tropical precipitation
topic Earth, Environmental, Ecological, and Space Sciences
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC9833657/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/36630505
http://dx.doi.org/10.1126/sciadv.abo5317
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