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Abstract
The CloudSat satellite data from June 2006 to April 2011 are used to investigate the characteristics of
cloud vertical profiles over East Asia (20°–50?N, 80?–120?E), with particular emphasis on the profiles of
precipitative clouds in comparison with those of nonprecipitative clouds, as well as the seasonal variations
of these profiles. There are some obvious differences between the precipitative and nonprecipitative cloud
profiles. Generally, precipitative clouds mainly locate below 8 km with radar reflectivity in the range of –20
to 15 dBZ and maximum values appearing within 2–4-km height, and the clouds usually reach the ground;
while nonprecipitative clouds locate in the layers of 4–12 km with radar reflectivity between –28 and 0 dBZ
and maximum values within 8–10-km height. There are also some differences among the liquid precipitative,
solid precipitative, and possible drizzle precipitative cloud profiles. In precipitative clouds, radar reflectivity
increases rapidly from 11 to 7 km in vertical, implying that condensation and collision-coalescence processes
play a crucial role in the formation of large-size drops. The frequency distribution of temperature at –15℃
is consistent with the highest frequency of radar reflectivity in solid precipitative clouds, which suggests
that the temperatures near –15℃ are conductive to deposition and accretion processes. The vertical profiles
of liquid precipitative clouds show almost the same distributions in spring, summer, and autumn but with
differences in winter at mainly lower levels. In contrast, the vertical profiles of solid precipitative clouds
change from spring to winter with an alternate double and single high-frequency core, which is consistent
with variations of the frequency distribution of temperature at –15℃. The vertical profiles of nonprecipitative
clouds show a little change with season. The observations also show that the precipitation events over East
Asia are mostly related to deep convective clouds and nimbostratus clouds. These results are expected to be
useful for evaluation of weather and climate models and for improvement of microphysical parameterizations
in numerical models.
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Citation
YIN Jinfang, WANG Donghai, ZHAI Guoqing, WANG Zhien. 2013: Observational Characteristics of Cloud Vertical Profiles over theContinent of East Asia from the CloudSat Data. Journal of Meteorological Research, 27(1): 26-39. DOI: 10.1007/s13351-013-0104-0
YIN Jinfang, WANG Donghai, ZHAI Guoqing, WANG Zhien. 2013: Observational Characteristics of Cloud Vertical Profiles over theContinent of East Asia from the CloudSat Data. Journal of Meteorological Research, 27(1): 26-39. DOI: 10.1007/s13351-013-0104-0
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YIN Jinfang, WANG Donghai, ZHAI Guoqing, WANG Zhien. 2013: Observational Characteristics of Cloud Vertical Profiles over theContinent of East Asia from the CloudSat Data. Journal of Meteorological Research, 27(1): 26-39. DOI: 10.1007/s13351-013-0104-0
YIN Jinfang, WANG Donghai, ZHAI Guoqing, WANG Zhien. 2013: Observational Characteristics of Cloud Vertical Profiles over theContinent of East Asia from the CloudSat Data. Journal of Meteorological Research, 27(1): 26-39. DOI: 10.1007/s13351-013-0104-0
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