Abstract Kelvin-Helmholtz (KH) waves are a frequent source of turbulence in stratiform precipitation systems over mountainous terrain. KH waves introduce large eddies into otherwise laminar flow, with updrafts and downdrafts generating small-scale turbulence. When they occur in-cloud, such dynamics influence microphysical processes that impact precipitation growth and fallout. Part I of this paper used dual-Doppler, 2D wind and reflectivity measurements from an airborne cloud radar to demonstrate the occurrence of KH waves in stratiform orographic precipitation systems and identified four mechanisms for triggering KH waves. In Part II, we use similar observations to explore the effects of KH wave updrafts and turbulence on cloud microphysics. Measurements within KH wave updrafts reveal the production of liquid water in otherwise ice-dominated clouds, which can contribute to snow generation or enhancement via depositional and accretional growth. Fallstreaks beneath KH waves contain higher ice water content, composed of larger and more numerous ice particles, suggesting that KH waves and associated turbulence may also increase ice nucleation. A Large-Eddy Simulation (LES), designed to model the microphysical response to the KH wave eddies in mixed phase cloud, shows that depositional and accretional growth can be enhanced in KH waves, resulting in more precipitation when compared to a baseline simulation. While sublimation and evaporation occur in KH downdrafts, persistent supersaturation with respect to ice allows for net increase in ice mass. These modeling results and observations suggest that KH waves embedded in mixed-phase stratiform clouds may increase precipitation, although the quantitative impact remains uncertain.
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Vertical Motions Forced by Small-Scale Terrain and Cloud Microphysical Response in Extratropical Precipitation Systems
Abstract Airborne vertically profiling Doppler radar data and output from a ∼1-km-grid-resolution numerical simulation are used to examine how relatively small-scale terrain ridges (∼10–25 km apart and ∼0.5–1.0 km above the surrounding valleys) impact cross-mountain flow, cloud processes, and surface precipitation in deep stratiform precipitation systems. The radar data were collected along fixed flight tracks aligned with the wind, about 100 km long between the Snake River Plain and the Idaho Central Mountains, as part of the 2017 Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE). Data from repeat flight legs are composited in order to suppress transient features and retain the effect of the underlying terrain. Simulations closely match observed series of terrain-driven deep gravity waves, although the simulated wave amplitude is slightly exaggerated. The deep waves produce pockets of supercooled liquid water in the otherwise ice-dominated clouds (confirmed by flight-level observations and the model) and distort radar-derived hydrometeor trajectories. Snow particles aloft encounter several wave updrafts and downdrafts before reaching the ground. No significant wavelike modulation of radar reflectivity or model ice water content occurs. The model does indicate substantial localized precipitation enhancement (1.8–3.0 times higher than the mean) peaking just downwind of individual ridges, especially those ridges with the most intense wave updrafts, on account of shallow pockets of high liquid water content on the upwind side, leading to the growth of snow and graupel, falling out mostly downwind of the crest. Radar reflectivity values near the surface are complicated by snowmelt, but suggest a more modest enhancement downwind of individual ridges. Significance Statement Mountains in the midlatitude belt and elsewhere receive more precipitation than the surrounding lowlands. The mountain terrain often is complex, and it remains unclear exactly where this precipitation enhancement occurs, because weather radars are challenged by beam blockage and the gauge network is too sparse to capture the precipitation heterogeneity over complex terrain. This study uses airborne profiling radar and high-resolution numerical simulations for four winter storms over a series of ridges in Idaho. One key finding is that while instantaneous airborne radar transects of the cross-mountain flow, vertical drafts, and reflectivity contain much transient small-scale information, time-averaged transects look very much like the model transects. The model indicates substantial surface precipitation enhancement over terrain, peaking over and just downwind of individual ridges. Radar observations suggest less enhancement, but the radar-based assessment is uncertain. The second key conclusion is that, even though orographic gravity waves are felt all the way up into the upper troposphere, the orographic precipitation enhancement is due to processes very close to the terrain.
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- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10435008
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Volume:
- 80
- Issue:
- 3
- ISSN:
- 0022-4928
- Page Range / eLocation ID:
- 649 to 669
- Format(s):
- Medium: X
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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Abstract Potential factors affecting the inland penetration and orographic modulation of lake-effect precipitation east of Lake Ontario include the environmental (lake, land, and atmospheric) conditions, mode of the lake-effect system, and orographic processes associated with flow across the downstream Tug Hill Plateau (herein Tug Hill), Black River valley, and Adirondack Mountains (herein Adirondacks). In this study we use data from the KTYX WSR-88D, ERA5 reanalysis, New York State Mesonet, and Ontario Winter Lake-effect Systems (OWLeS) field campaign to examine how these factors influence lake-effect characteristics with emphasis on the region downstream of Tug Hill. During an eight-cool-season (16 November–15 April) study period (2012/13–2019/20), total radar-estimated precipitation during lake-effect periods increased gradually from Lake Ontario to upper Tug Hill and decreased abruptly where the Tug Hill escarpment drops into the Black River valley. The axis of maximum precipitation shifted poleward across the northern Black River valley and into the northwestern Adirondacks. In the western Adirondacks, the heaviest lake-effect snowfall periods featured strong, near-zonal boundary layer flow, a deep boundary layer, and a single precipitation band aligned along the long-lake axis. Airborne profiling radar observations collected during OWLeS IOP10 revealed precipitation enhancement over Tug Hill, spillover and shadowing in the Black River valley where a resonant lee wave was present, and precipitation invigoration over the western Adirondacks. These results illustrate the orographic modulation of inland-penetrating lake-effect systems downstream of Lake Ontario and the factors favoring heavy snowfall over the western Adirondacks.
Significance Statement Inland penetrating lake-effect storms east of Lake Ontario affect remote rural communities, enable a regional winter-sports economy, and contribute to a snowpack that contributes to runoff and flooding during thaws and rain-on-snow events. In this study we illustrate how the region’s three major geographic features—Tug Hill, the Black River valley, and the western Adirondacks—affect the characteristics of lake-effect precipitation, describe the factors contributing to heavy snowfall over the western Adirondacks, and provide an examples of terrain effects in a lake-effect storm observed with a specially instrumented research aircraft.
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Abstract Kelvin–Helmholtz instability (KH) waves have been broadly shown to affect the growth of hydrometeors within a region of falling precipitation, but formation and growth from KH waves at cloud top needs further attention. Here, we present detailed observations of cloud-top KH waves that produced a snow plume that extended to the surface. Airborne transects of cloud radar aligned with range height indicator scans from ground-based precipitation radar track the progression and intensity of the KH wave kinetics and precipitation. In situ cloud probes and surface disdrometer measurements are used to quantify the impact of the snow plume on the composition of an underlying supercooled liquid water (SLW) cloud and the snowfall observed at the surface. KH wavelengths of 1.5 km consisted of ∼750-m-wide up- and downdrafts. A distinct fluctus region appeared as a wave-breaking cloud top where the fastest updraft was observed to exceed 5 m s−1. Relatively weaker updrafts of 0.5–1.5 m s−1beneath the fluctus and partially overlapping the dendritic growth zone were associated with steep gradients in reflectivity of −5 to 20 dB
Ze in as little as 500-m depths due to rapid growth of pristine planar ice crystals. The falling snow removed ∼80% of the SLW content from the underlying cloud and led to a twofold increase in surface liquid equivalent snowfall rate from 0.6 to 1.3 mm h−1. This paper presents the first known study of cloud-top KH waves producing snowfall with observations of increased snowfall rates at the surface. -
Abstract In Part II, two classes of vertical motions, fixed (associated with vertically propagating gravity waves tied to flow over topography) and transient (associated primarily with vertical wind shear and conditional instability within passing weather systems), were diagnosed over the Payette River basin of Idaho during the Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: The Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE). This paper compares vertical motions retrieved from airborne Doppler radial velocity measurements with those from a 900-m-resolution model simulation to determine the impact of transient vertical motions on trajectories of ice particles initiated by airborne cloud seeding. An orographic forcing index, developed to compare vertical motion fields retrieved from the radar with the model, showed that fixed vertical motions were well resolved by the model while transient vertical motions were not. Particle trajectories were calculated for 75 cross-sectional pairs, each differing only by the observed and modeled vertical motion field. Wind fields and particle terminal velocities were otherwise identical in both trajectories so that the impact of transient vertical circulations on particle trajectories could be isolated. In 66.7% of flight-leg pairs, the distance traveled by particles in the model and observations differed by less than 5 km with transient features having minimal impact. In 9.3% of the pairs, model and observation trajectories landed within the ideal target seeding elevation range (>2000 m), whereas, in 77.3% of the pairs, both trajectories landed below the ideal target elevation. Particles in the observations and model descended into valleys on the mountains’ lee sides in 94.2% of cases in which particles traveled less than 37 km.more » « less
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Rapp, Anita (Ed.)Updrafts in wintertime cloud systems over mountainous regions can be described as fixed, mechanically driven by the terrain under a given ambient wind and stability profile (i.e., vertically propagating gravity waves), and transient, related to vertical wind shear and conditional instability within passing weather systems. This analysis quantifies the magnitude of fixed and transient updraft structures over the Payette River Basin sampled during the Seeded and Natural Orographic Wintertime Clouds: the Idaho Experiment (SNOWIE). Vertical motions were retrieved from Wyoming Cloud Radar measurements of radial velocity using the algorithm presented in Part 1. Transient circulations were removed and fixed orographic circulations were quantified by averaging vertical circulations along repeated cross sections over the same terrain during the campaign. Fixed orographic vertical circulations had magnitudes of 0.3-0.5 m s-1. These fixed vertical circulations comprised a background circulation in which transient circulations were embedded. Transient vertical circulations are shown to be associated with transient wave motions, cloud top generating cells, convection, and turbulence. Representative transient vertical circulations are illustrated and data from rawinsondes over the Payette River Basin are used to infer the relationship of the vertical circulations to shear and instability. Maximum updrafts are shown to exceed 5 m s 1 within Kelvin-Helmholtz waves, 4 m s-1 associated with transient gravity waves, 3 m s-1 in generating cells, 6 m s-1 in elevated convection, 4 m s-1 in surface-based deep convection, 5 m s-1 in boundary layer turbulence, and 9 m s-1 in shear-induced turbulence.more » « less
- Free Publicly Accessible Full Text
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Accepted Manuscript1.0
- Journal Article:
- https://doi.org/10.1175/JAS-D-22-0161.1
