John D. Locatelli

Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment

Abstract Despite continual increases in numerical model resolution and significant improvements in the forecasting of many meteorological parameters, progress in quantitative precipitation forecasting (QPF) has been slow. This is attributable in part to deficiencies in the bulk microphysical parameterization (BMP) schemes used in mesoscale models to simulate cloud and precipitation processes. These deficiencies have become more apparent as model resolution has increased. To address these problems requires comprehensive data that can be used to isolate errors in QPF due to BMP schemes from those due to other sources. These same data can then be used to evaluate and improve the microphysical processes and hydrometeor fields simulated by BMP schemes. In response to the need for such data, a group of researchers is collaborating on a study titled the Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE). IMPROVE has included two field campaigns carried out in th...

The Mesoscale and Microscale Structure and Organization of Clouds and Precipitation in Midlatitude Cyclones. I: A Case Study of a Cold Front

Abstract Detailed information is deduced on the mesoscale organization of precipitation, the structures of the clouds, the air flows associated with mesoscale rainbands, and the precipitation efficiencies and the mechanisms producing precipitation in the rainbands associated with a cold front. Measurements were obtained with quantitative reflectivity and Doppler radars, two instrumented aircraft, serial rawinsondes and a network of ground stations. The regions of heaviest precipitation were organized into a complex mesoscale rainband in the warm-sector air ahead of the front, a narrow band of precipitation at the surface cold front, and four wide cold-frontal rainbands. The wide cold-frontal rainbands and the smaller mesoscale areas of precipitation within them moved with the velocities of the winds between ∼3—6 km. The narrow rainband, which was produced by strong convergence and convection in the boundary layer, moved with the speed of the cold front at the surface. A coupled updraft and downdraft was p...

A new conceptual model for cyclones generated in the lee of the Rocky Mountains

When a shortwave trough moves eastward over the Rocky Mountains and into the central United States, the following important features may form: a drytrough (i.e., a lee trough that also has the characteristics of a dryline), an arctic front, a low-level jet, and two synoptic-scale rainbands (called the cold front aloft rainband and the pre-drytrough rainband) that can produce heavy precipitation and severe weather well ahead of the drytrough. These features are incorporated into a new conceptual model for cyclones in the central United States. Use of this model can aid the interpretation of observational data and numerical model output, and it may also help to improve short-range forecasting in the central United States.

Cold Fronts Aloft and the Forecasting of Precipitation and Severe Weather East of the Rocky Mountains

Abstract Brief descriptions are given of four cases that illustrate the important role that cold fronts aloft (CFA) can play in producing significant weather cast of the Rocky Mountains. In all four cases, the CFA, and its associated short wave, were located ∼200–300 km ahead of a surface trough. Precipitation (and in some cases severe weather) developed along the leading edge of the CFA. The nested grid model generally did a good job of locating the CFA. Analysis of absolute momentum confirms that these features were fronts, in a dynamic, as well as a thermodynamic sense. A conceptual model for CFA is presented. In the cases examined, this model provides not only a useful picture of the distribution of clouds and precipitation associated with CFA, but also means for locating them. It also helps to define a major class of systems that do not fit the Norwegian cyclone model. Therefore, it should help in the identification of CFA and in improving the forecasting of precipitation and severe weather associate...

The IMPROVE-1 Storm of 1–2 February 2001. Part III: Sensitivity of a Mesoscale Model Simulation to the Representation of Snow Particle Types and Testing of a Bulk Microphysical Scheme with Snow Habit Prediction

Abstract A mesoscale model simulation of a wide cold-frontal rainband observed in the Pacific Northwest during the Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE-1) field study was used to test the sensitivity of the model-produced precipitation to varied representations of snow particles in a bulk microphysical scheme. Tests of sensitivity to snow habit type, by using empirical relationships for mass and velocity versus diameter, demonstrated the defectiveness of the conventional assumption of snow particles as constant density spheres. More realistic empirical mass–diameter relationships result in increased numbers of particles and shift the snow size distribution toward larger particles, leading to increased depositional growth of snow and decreased cloud water production. Use of realistic empirical mass–diameter relationships generally increased precipitation at the surface as the rainband interacted with the orography, with more limited increases ...

Microphysical Processes and Synergistic Interaction between Frontal and Orographic Forcing of Precipitation during the 13 December 2001 IMPROVE-2 Event over the Oregon Cascades

Abstract On 13–14 December 2001 a vigorous cyclonic storm passed over the Pacific Northwest, producing heavy orographic precipitation over the Cascade Mountains. This storm was one of several studied during the second field phase of the Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE). A wide variety of in situ and remotely sensed measurements were obtained as this storm passed over the Oregon Cascades. These measurements provided a comprehensive dataset of meteorological state parameters (temperature, pressure, humidity, winds, and vertical air velocity), polarization Doppler radar measurements, and cloud microphysical parameters (cloud liquid water, particle concentrations, size spectra, and imagery). The 13–14 December case was characterized by the passage of a tipped-forward lower-tropospheric front that extended upward to a preceding vigorous upper cold-frontal rainband, which produced clouds up to ∼8–9 km. An important difference between this stor...

Evaluation of a 35 GHz Radar for Cloud Physics Research

Abstract A 1960 35 GHz radar has been modernized through the use of solid state electronics, Dopplerization and improved data-display capabilities. Radars of this frequency are particularly useful for observing the internal structures of clouds and for detecting low concentrations of ice particles in the atmosphere. The minimum effective radar reflectivity factor of a cloud of water drops that is measurable by this radar at a range of 1 km was estimated to be −36 ± 4 dBZ. Simultaneous airborne and radar measurements showed that the radar reflectivity factors for various water clouds determined from radar measurements were generally in good agreement with those derived from in situ measurements of the drop size spectra. These measurements also showed that the radar can detect clouds in which the diameters of the droplets do not exceed ∼27 μm provided there are sufficient concentrations of 10–15 μm diameter droplets. Clouds containing only 1 L−1 of 100 μm diameter ice crystals (corresponding to a mass conce...

Size Spectra of Snow Particles Measured in Wintertime Precipitation in the Pacific Northwest

Abstract Particle size spectra collected by the University of Washington’s Convair-580 research aircraft at a variety of altitudes and temperatures in winter frontal and orographic precipitation systems during the Improvement of Microphysical Parameterization through Observational Verification Experiment (IMPROVE) are analyzed in this study. The particle size spectra generally appeared to conform to an exponential size distribution, with well-correlated linear fits between the log of the number concentration and particle diameter. When the particle size spectra were grouped according to the habit composition as determined from airborne imagery, significantly improved correlations between the size spectrum parameters and temperature were obtained. This result could potentially be exploited for specifying the size distribution in a single-moment bulk microphysical scheme, if particle habit is predicted by the scheme. Analyses of “spectral trajectories” suggest that the rime-splintering process was likely re...

Structure and Evolution of Winter Cyclones in the Central United States and Their Effects on the Distribution of Precipitation. Part III: The Development of a Squall Line Associated with Weak Cold Frontogenesis Aloft

Abstract From 8 to 9 March 1992 cold frontogenesis aloft (CFA), which was associated with the development of a vigorous baroclinic wave, triggered a series of squall lines that produced large hail and several tornadoes as they moved across the central United States. The air lifted by the CFA, which produced the squall lines, was made potentially unstable as a result of the circulation associated with a surface drytrough. This study provides further support for the view that in winter and early spring CFA plays an important role in triggering severe weather in the central United States.

Mesoscale Structures of Vortices in Polar Air Streams

Abstract Three vortices in a polar air stream are analyzed using detailed mesoscale observations and conventional synoptic data. In their mature stages, the vortices exhibited wind, temperature and precipitation patterns similar to the larger extratropical cyclones that form on the polar front. Each of the three vortices interacted with the polar front to form an “instant occlusion.” There is evidence that, in the three cases studied in this paper, a vortex supplied the low-pressure center, occlusion and cold front to the “instant occlusion”.