scholarly journals Characteristics of Precipitation Diurnal Cycle over a Mountainous Area of Sumatra Island including MJO and Seasonal Signatures Based on the 15-Year Optical Rain Gauge Data, WRF Model and IMERG

Atmosphere ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (1) ◽  
pp. 63
Author(s):  
Marzuki Marzuki ◽  
Helmi Yusnaini ◽  
Ravidho Ramadhan ◽  
Fredolin Tangang ◽  
Abdul Azim Bin Amirudin ◽  
...  

In this study we investigate the characteristics of the diurnal precipitation cycle including the Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) and seasonal influences over a mountainous area in Sumatra Island based on the in situ measurement of precipitation using the optical rain gauge (ORG). For comparison with ORG data, the characteristics based on the Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) mission (IMERG) and Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) simulations were also investigated. Fifteen years of ORG data over a mountainous area of Sumatra, namely, at Kototabang (100.32° E, 0.20° S), were analyzed to obtain the characteristics of the diurnal cycle of precipitation in this region. The diurnal cycle of precipitation presented a single peak in the late afternoon, and the peak time difference was closely related to the rain event duration. The MJO acts to modulate the diurnal amplitude but not the diurnal phase. A high precipitation amount (PA) and frequency (PF) were observed during phases 2, 3, and 4, along with an increase in the number of longer-duration rain events, but the diurnal phase was similar in all MJO phases. In terms of season, the highest PA and PF values were observed during pre-southwest and pre-northeast monsoon seasons. WRF simulation reproduced the diurnal phase correctly and more realistically than the IMERG products. However, it largely overestimated the amplitude of the diurnal cycle in comparison with ORG. These disagreements could be related to the resolution and quality of IMERG and WRF data.

2022 ◽  
Vol 8 (1) ◽  
pp. 163-170
Author(s):  
Ravidho Ramadhan ◽  
Marzuki Marzuki ◽  
Helmi Yusnaini ◽  
Ayu Putri Ningsih ◽  
Hiroyuki Hashiguchi ◽  
...  

Accurate satellite precipitation estimates over areas of complex topography are still challenging, while such accuracy is of importance to the adoption of satellite data for hydrological applications. This study evaluated the ability of Integrated Multi-satellitE Retrievals for GPM -Final (IMERG) V06 product to observe the extreme rainfall over a mountainous area of Sumatra Island. Fifteen years of optical rain gauge (ORG) observation at Kototabang, West Sumatra, Indonesia (100.32°E, 0.20°S, 865 m above sea level), were used as reference surface measurement. The performance of IMERG-F was evaluated using 13 extreme rain indexes formulated by the Expert Team on Climate Change Detection and Indices (ETCCDI). The IMERG-F overestimated the values of all precipitation amount-based indices (PRCPTOT, R85P, R95P, and R99P), three precipitation frequency-based indices (R1mm, R10mm, R20mm), one precipitation duration-based indices (CWD), and one precipitation intensity-based indices (RX5day). Furthermore, the IMERG-F underestimated the values of precipitation frequency-based indices (R50mm), one precipitation duration-based indices (CDD), one precipitation intensity-based indices (SDII). In terms of correlation, only five indexes have a correlation coefficient (R) > 0.5, consistent with Kling–Gupta Efficiency (KGE) value. These results confirm the need to improve the accuracy of the IMERG-F data in mountainous areas.


2011 ◽  
Vol 63 (4) ◽  
pp. 664-674 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jee-Hoon Jeong ◽  
Alexander Walther ◽  
Grigory Nikulin ◽  
Deliang Chen ◽  
Colin Jones

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (10) ◽  
pp. 10389-10429
Author(s):  
K. Sunilkumar ◽  
T. Narayana Rao ◽  
S. Satheeshkumar

Abstract. This paper describes the establishment of a dense rain gauge network and small-scale variability in rain storms (both in space and time) over a complex hilly terrain in southeast peninsular India. Three years of high-resolution gauge measurements are used to evaluate 3 hourly rainfall and sub-daily variations of four widely used multisatellite precipitation estimates (MPEs). The network consists of 36 rain gauges arranged in a near-square grid area of 50 km × 50 km with an intergauge distance of ~ 10 km. Morphological features of rainfall in two principal monsoon seasons (southwest monsoon: SWM and northeast monsoon: NEM) show marked seasonal differences. The NEM rainfall exhibits significant spatial variability and most of the rainfall is associated with large-scale systems (in wet spells), whereas the contribution from small-scale systems is considerable in SWM. Rain storms with longer duration and copious rainfall are seen mostly in the western quadrants in SWM and northern quadrants in NEM, indicating complex spatial variability within the study region. The diurnal cycle also exhibits marked spatiotemporal variability with strong diurnal cycle at all the stations (except for 1) during the SWM and insignificant diurnal cycle at many stations during the NEM. On average, the diurnal amplitudes are a factor 2 larger in SWM than in NEM. The 24 h harmonic explains about 70 % of total variance in SWM and only ~ 30 % in NEM. The late night-mid night peak (20:00–02:00 LT) observed during the SWM is attributed to the propagating systems from the west coast during active monsoon spells. Correlograms with different temporal integrations of rainfall data (1, 3, 12, 24 h) show an increase in the spatial correlation with temporal integration, but the correlation remains nearly the same after 12 h of integration in both the monsoons. The 1 h resolution data shows the steepest reduction in correlation with intergauge distance and the correlation becomes insignificant after ~30 km in both monsoons. Evaluation of high-resolution rainfall estimates from various MPEs against the gauge rainfall indicates that all MPEs underestimate the weak and heavy rain. The MPEs exhibit good detection skills of rain at both 3 and 24 h resolutions, however, considerable improvement is observed at 24 h resolution. Among different MPEs, Climate Prediction Centre morphing technique (CMORPH) performs better at 3 hourly resolution in both monsoons. The performance of TRMM multisatellite precipitation analysis (TMPA) is much better at daily resolution than at 3 hourly, as evidenced by better statistical metrics than the other MPEs. All MPEs captured the basic shape of diurnal cycle and the amplitude quite well, but failed to reproduce the weak/insignificant diurnal cycle in NEM.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shuxin Cai ◽  
Anning Huang ◽  
Kefeng Zhu ◽  
Ben Yang ◽  
Xianyu Yang ◽  
...  

AbstractBased on the hourly gauge-satellite merged precipitation data with the spatial resolution of 0.1° × 0.1° during 2013 ~ 2018, we have evaluated the performance of the convection-permitting Weather Research and Forecasting model at Nanjing University (WRF_NJU) in forecasting the precipitation diurnal variation and the associated atmospheric circulation over the eastern Tibetan Plateau and its surrounding regions during summer. Results indicate that WRF_NJU model can well reproduce the diurnal cycle of the summer precipitation in terms of the diurnal peak time, duration and magnitude. In addition, the eastward propagation of rainfall systems with long duration along the eastern Tibetan Plateau (ETP) and its adjacent areas can also be properly captured. The WRF_NJU model can reasonably reproduce the relevant atmospheric circulation during summer as well. However, the model tends to underestimate the summer precipitation amount (PA) and precipitation frequency (PF) over most time of a day. Relatively larger biases in the occurring time and magnitude of PA and PF diurnal peaks can be noted over the ETP and Sichuan Basin. Further analysis suggests that the underestimation of PA over the ETP is attributed to the much lower moisture supply, weaker low-level southwesterly winds and less convective available potential energy (CAPE) in the WRF_NJU model than in ERA5. Over Sichuan Basin, the underestimated PA is related to the weaker upward motion, which is corresponding to the cold biases of surface air temperature in WRF_NJU. Findings of this study provide the basic model biases and may be helpful to further improve the model physical processes.


2021 ◽  
pp. 1-52
Author(s):  
Zeyu Cui ◽  
Guang J. Zhang ◽  
Yong Wang ◽  
Shaocheng Xie

AbstractThe wrong diurnal cycle of precipitation is a common weakness of current global climate models (GCMs). To improve the simulation of the diurnal cycle of precipitation and understand what physical processes control it, we test a convective trigger function described in Xie et al. (2019) with additional optimizations in the NCAR Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). The revised trigger function consists of three modifications: 1) replacing the Convective Available Potential Energy (CAPE) trigger with a dynamic CAPE (dCAPE) trigger, 2) allowing convection to originate above the top of planetary boundary layer (i.e., the unrestricted air parcel launch level - ULL), and 3) optimizing the entrainment rate and threshold value of the dynamic CAPE generation rate for convection onset based on observations. Results from 1°-resolution simulations show that the revised trigger can alleviate the long-standing GCM problem of too early maximum precipitation during the day and missing the nocturnal precipitation peak that is observed in many regions, including the US Southern Great Plains (SGP). The revised trigger also improves the simulation of the propagation of precipitation systems downstream of the Rockies and the Amazon region. A further composite analysis over the SGP unravels the mechanisms through which the revised trigger affects convection. Additional sensitivity tests show that both the peak time and the amplitude of the diurnal cycle of precipitation are sensitive to the entrainment rate and dCAPE threshold values.


2017 ◽  
Vol 145 (9) ◽  
pp. 3745-3761 ◽  
Author(s):  
Satoru Yokoi ◽  
Shuichi Mori ◽  
Masaki Katsumata ◽  
Biao Geng ◽  
Kazuaki Yasunaga ◽  
...  

This study analyzes data obtained by intensive observation during a pilot field campaign of the Years of the Maritime Continent Project (Pre-YMC) to investigate the diurnal cycle of precipitation in the western coastal area of Sumatra Island. The diurnal cycle during the campaign period (November–December 2015) is found to have a number of similarities with statistical behavior of the diurnal cycle as revealed by previous studies, such as afternoon precipitation over land, nighttime offshore migration of the precipitation zone, and dependency on Madden–Julian oscillation (MJO) phase. Composite analyses of radiosonde soundings from the Research Vessel (R/V) Mirai, deployed about 50 km off the coast, demonstrate that the lower free troposphere starts cooling in late afternoon (a couple of hours earlier than the cooling in the boundary layer), making the lower troposphere more unstable just before precipitation starts to increase. As the nighttime offshore precipitation tends to be more vigorous on days when the cooling in the lower free troposphere is larger, it is possible that the destabilization due to the cooling contributes to the offshore migration of the precipitation zone via enhancement of convective activity. Comparison of potential temperature and water vapor mixing ratio tendencies suggests that this cooling is substantially due to vertical advection by an ascent motion, which is possibly a component of shallow gravity waves. These results support the idea that gravity waves emanating from convective systems over land play a significant role in the offshore migration of the precipitation zone.


2015 ◽  
Vol 2015 ◽  
pp. 1-10 ◽  
Author(s):  
Chuancheng Zhao ◽  
Shuxia Yao ◽  
Shiqiang Zhang ◽  
Haidong Han ◽  
Qiudong Zhao ◽  
...  

Precipitation is one of the important water supplies in the arid and semiarid regions of northwestern China, playing a vital role in maintaining the fragile ecosystem. In remote mountainous area, it is difficult to obtain an accurate and reliable spatialization of the precipitation amount at the regional scale due to the inaccessibility, the sparsity of observation stations, and the complexity of relationships between precipitation and topography. Furthermore, accurate precipitation is important driven data for hydrological models to assess the water balance and water resource for hydrologists. Therefore, the use of satellite remote sensing becomes an important means over mountainous area. Precipitation datasets based on station data or pure satellite data have been increasingly available in spite of several weaknesses. This paper evaluates the usefulness of three precipitation datasets including TRMM 3B43_V6, 3B43_V7, and Asian Precipitation Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation with rain gauge data over Tianshan mountainous area where precipitation data is scarce. The results suggest that precipitation measurements only provided accurate information on a small scale, while the satellite remote sensing of precipitation had obvious advantages in basin scale or large scale especially over remote mountainous area.


2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (4) ◽  
pp. 734
Author(s):  
Ricardo Almeida de Siqueira ◽  
Daniel Alejandro Vila ◽  
João Maria de Sousa Afonso

The knowledge of the diurnal cycle of precipitation is of extreme relevance to understanding the physical/dynamic processes associated with the spatial and temporal distribution of precipitation. The main difficulty of this task is the lack of surface precipitation information over certain regions on an hourly time scale and the low spatial representativeness of these data (normally surface gauges). In order to overcome these difficulties, the main objective of this study is to create a 3-h precipitation accumulation database from the gauge-adjusted daily regional precipitation products to resolve the diurnal cycle properly. This study also proposes to evaluate different methodologies for partitioning gauge-adjusted daily precipitation products, i.e., a product made by the combination of satellite estimates and surface gauge observations, into 3-h precipitation accumulation. Two methodologies based on the calculation of a conversion factor F between a daily gauge-adjusted product, combined scheme (CoSch, hereafter), and a non-gauge-adjusted one, the integrated multi-satellite retrievals for GPM (IMERG)-Early (IMERG, hereafter) were tested for this research. Hourly rain gauge stations for the period of 2015–2018 over Brazil were used to assess the performance of the proposed methodologies over the whole region and five sub-regions with homogeneous precipitation regimes. Standard statistical metrics and categorical indices related with the capability to detect rainfall events were used to compare the ability of each product to represent the diurnal cycle. The results show that the new 3-h CoSch products show better agreement with rainfall gauge stations when compared with IMERG, better capturing the diurnal cycle of precipitation. The biggest improvement was over northeastern region close to the coast, where IMERG was not able to capture the diurnal cycle properly. One of the proposed methodologies (CoSchB) performed better on the critical success index and equitable threat score metrics, suggesting that this is the best product over the two. The downside, when compared with the other methodology (CoSchA), was a slight increase in the values of bias and mean absolute error, but still at acceptable levels.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document