Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM

Cai Hongke; Sun Yi; Chen Quanliang

doi:doi:10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

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Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM

Cai Hongke, Sun Yi, Chen Quanliang

Published in Earth Sciences (Volume 7, Issue 4)

Received: 19 July 2018 Accepted: 3 August 2018 Published: 29 August 2018

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Abstract

To have a clear understanding of the convective precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding regions, this research systematically studied characteristics of distribution of convective storm top altitudes over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions by using the level-2 orbital data obtained by the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The following conclusions are drawn in this study. (1) Because of the development of Asia summer monsoon, the number of samples of precipitation with storm top altitude above 10 km increases gradually from June to August, and all the samples of precipitation diminishes with the increases of altitude. That is, the higher the storm top altitude, the less the frequency of precipitation. (2) The deep convection frequency above 10 km altitude over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions is less than 0.8%. The deep convection frequency above 14 km is obviously less than the 10 km deep convection, not exceeding 0.2%. (3) With the increase of convective storm top altitude, the proportion of corresponding deep convection decreases exponentially. The contribution of convective precipitation to total precipitation is consistent with the contribution of convective precipitation frequency to total precipitation frequency, and the both area fractions of them decrease rapidly with the increases of the contribution. Besides, both of the two maximum contributions are below 40%. (4) The storm top altitude and surface rain rate of convective precipitation are the lowest in June and the highest in August. Furthermore, the storm top altitude over the TP rises slowly from the western part of the plateau to the eastern part, and the rain rate shows a significant gradient change with the increases of height. Below 6 km altitude, the maximum value of rain rate can reach 8 mm/h, but the precipitation intensity reduce to 4 mm/h when the altitude is above 6 km.

Published in	Earth Sciences (Volume 7, Issue 4)
DOI	10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
Page(s)	175-182
Creative Commons	This is an Open Access article, distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use, distribution and reproduction in any medium or format, provided the original work is properly cited.
Copyright	Copyright © The Author(s), 2018. Published by Science Publishing Group

Keywords

GPM DPR, Tibetan Plateau, Convective Precipitation, Storm Top Altitude

References

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APA Style

Cai Hongke, Sun Yi, Chen Quanliang. (2018). Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM. Earth Sciences, 7(4), 175-182. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

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ACS Style

Cai Hongke; Sun Yi; Chen Quanliang. Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM. Earth Sci. 2018, 7(4), 175-182. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

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AMA Style

Cai Hongke, Sun Yi, Chen Quanliang. Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM. Earth Sci. 2018;7(4):175-182. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

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@article{10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15,
  author = {Cai Hongke and Sun Yi and Chen Quanliang},
  title = {Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM},
  journal = {Earth Sciences},
  volume = {7},
  number = {4},
  pages = {175-182},
  doi = {10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.20180704.15},
  abstract = {To have a clear understanding of the convective precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding regions, this research systematically studied characteristics of distribution of convective storm top altitudes over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions by using the level-2 orbital data obtained by the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The following conclusions are drawn in this study. (1) Because of the development of Asia summer monsoon, the number of samples of precipitation with storm top altitude above 10 km increases gradually from June to August, and all the samples of precipitation diminishes with the increases of altitude. That is, the higher the storm top altitude, the less the frequency of precipitation. (2) The deep convection frequency above 10 km altitude over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions is less than 0.8%. The deep convection frequency above 14 km is obviously less than the 10 km deep convection, not exceeding 0.2%. (3) With the increase of convective storm top altitude, the proportion of corresponding deep convection decreases exponentially. The contribution of convective precipitation to total precipitation is consistent with the contribution of convective precipitation frequency to total precipitation frequency, and the both area fractions of them decrease rapidly with the increases of the contribution. Besides, both of the two maximum contributions are below 40%. (4) The storm top altitude and surface rain rate of convective precipitation are the lowest in June and the highest in August. Furthermore, the storm top altitude over the TP rises slowly from the western part of the plateau to the eastern part, and the rain rate shows a significant gradient change with the increases of height. Below 6 km altitude, the maximum value of rain rate can reach 8 mm/h, but the precipitation intensity reduce to 4 mm/h when the altitude is above 6 km.},
 year = {2018}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM
AU  - Cai Hongke
AU  - Sun Yi
AU  - Chen Quanliang
Y1  - 2018/08/29
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
T2  - Earth Sciences
JF  - Earth Sciences
JO  - Earth Sciences
SP  - 175
EP  - 182
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-5982
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
AB  - To have a clear understanding of the convective precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding regions, this research systematically studied characteristics of distribution of convective storm top altitudes over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions by using the level-2 orbital data obtained by the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The following conclusions are drawn in this study. (1) Because of the development of Asia summer monsoon, the number of samples of precipitation with storm top altitude above 10 km increases gradually from June to August, and all the samples of precipitation diminishes with the increases of altitude. That is, the higher the storm top altitude, the less the frequency of precipitation. (2) The deep convection frequency above 10 km altitude over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions is less than 0.8%. The deep convection frequency above 14 km is obviously less than the 10 km deep convection, not exceeding 0.2%. (3) With the increase of convective storm top altitude, the proportion of corresponding deep convection decreases exponentially. The contribution of convective precipitation to total precipitation is consistent with the contribution of convective precipitation frequency to total precipitation frequency, and the both area fractions of them decrease rapidly with the increases of the contribution. Besides, both of the two maximum contributions are below 40%. (4) The storm top altitude and surface rain rate of convective precipitation are the lowest in June and the highest in August. Furthermore, the storm top altitude over the TP rises slowly from the western part of the plateau to the eastern part, and the rain rate shows a significant gradient change with the increases of height. Below 6 km altitude, the maximum value of rain rate can reach 8 mm/h, but the precipitation intensity reduce to 4 mm/h when the altitude is above 6 km.
VL  - 7
IS  - 4
ER  -

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Author Information

Cai Hongke

School of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Plateau Atmospheric and Environment Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China
Sun Yi

School of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Plateau Atmospheric and Environment Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China
Chen Quanliang

School of Atmospheric Sciences, Chengdu University of Information Technology, Plateau Atmospheric and Environment Laboratory of Sichuan Province, Chengdu, China

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Cai Hongke, Sun Yi, Chen Quanliang. (2018). Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM. Earth Sciences, 7(4), 175-182. https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

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ACS Style

Cai Hongke; Sun Yi; Chen Quanliang. Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM. Earth Sci. 2018, 7(4), 175-182. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

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AMA Style

Cai Hongke, Sun Yi, Chen Quanliang. Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM. Earth Sci. 2018;7(4):175-182. doi: 10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15

Copy | Download

@article{10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15,
  author = {Cai Hongke and Sun Yi and Chen Quanliang},
  title = {Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM},
  journal = {Earth Sciences},
  volume = {7},
  number = {4},
  pages = {175-182},
  doi = {10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15},
  url = {https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15},
  eprint = {https://article.sciencepublishinggroup.com/pdf/10.11648.j.earth.20180704.15},
  abstract = {To have a clear understanding of the convective precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding regions, this research systematically studied characteristics of distribution of convective storm top altitudes over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions by using the level-2 orbital data obtained by the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The following conclusions are drawn in this study. (1) Because of the development of Asia summer monsoon, the number of samples of precipitation with storm top altitude above 10 km increases gradually from June to August, and all the samples of precipitation diminishes with the increases of altitude. That is, the higher the storm top altitude, the less the frequency of precipitation. (2) The deep convection frequency above 10 km altitude over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions is less than 0.8%. The deep convection frequency above 14 km is obviously less than the 10 km deep convection, not exceeding 0.2%. (3) With the increase of convective storm top altitude, the proportion of corresponding deep convection decreases exponentially. The contribution of convective precipitation to total precipitation is consistent with the contribution of convective precipitation frequency to total precipitation frequency, and the both area fractions of them decrease rapidly with the increases of the contribution. Besides, both of the two maximum contributions are below 40%. (4) The storm top altitude and surface rain rate of convective precipitation are the lowest in June and the highest in August. Furthermore, the storm top altitude over the TP rises slowly from the western part of the plateau to the eastern part, and the rain rate shows a significant gradient change with the increases of height. Below 6 km altitude, the maximum value of rain rate can reach 8 mm/h, but the precipitation intensity reduce to 4 mm/h when the altitude is above 6 km.},
 year = {2018}
}

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TY  - JOUR
T1  - Characteristics of Convective Storm Top Altitudes in Summer over the Tibetan Plateau by GPM
AU  - Cai Hongke
AU  - Sun Yi
AU  - Chen Quanliang
Y1  - 2018/08/29
PY  - 2018
N1  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
DO  - 10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
T2  - Earth Sciences
JF  - Earth Sciences
JO  - Earth Sciences
SP  - 175
EP  - 182
PB  - Science Publishing Group
SN  - 2328-5982
UR  - https://doi.org/10.11648/j.earth.20180704.15
AB  - To have a clear understanding of the convective precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) and its surrounding regions, this research systematically studied characteristics of distribution of convective storm top altitudes over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions by using the level-2 orbital data obtained by the Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar (DPR). The following conclusions are drawn in this study. (1) Because of the development of Asia summer monsoon, the number of samples of precipitation with storm top altitude above 10 km increases gradually from June to August, and all the samples of precipitation diminishes with the increases of altitude. That is, the higher the storm top altitude, the less the frequency of precipitation. (2) The deep convection frequency above 10 km altitude over the Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions is less than 0.8%. The deep convection frequency above 14 km is obviously less than the 10 km deep convection, not exceeding 0.2%. (3) With the increase of convective storm top altitude, the proportion of corresponding deep convection decreases exponentially. The contribution of convective precipitation to total precipitation is consistent with the contribution of convective precipitation frequency to total precipitation frequency, and the both area fractions of them decrease rapidly with the increases of the contribution. Besides, both of the two maximum contributions are below 40%. (4) The storm top altitude and surface rain rate of convective precipitation are the lowest in June and the highest in August. Furthermore, the storm top altitude over the TP rises slowly from the western part of the plateau to the eastern part, and the rain rate shows a significant gradient change with the increases of height. Below 6 km altitude, the maximum value of rain rate can reach 8 mm/h, but the precipitation intensity reduce to 4 mm/h when the altitude is above 6 km.
VL  - 7
IS  - 4
ER  -

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