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A-Train estimates of the sensitivity of warm rain likelihood and efficiency to cloud size
  • Kevin Smalley,
  • Anita Rapp
Kevin Smalley
Texas A&M University College Station

Corresponding Author:ksmalley@tamu.edu

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Anita Rapp
Texas A&M University
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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.