Precipitation

About: Precipitation is a research topic. Over the lifetime, 32861 publications have been published within this topic receiving 990496 citations. The topic is also known as: rain & rainfall.

APHRODITE: Constructing a Long-Term Daily Gridded Precipitation Dataset for Asia Based on a Dense Network of Rain Gauges

Abstract: A daily gridded precipitation dataset covering a period of more than 57 yr was created by collecting and analyzing rain gauge observation data across Asia through the activities of the Asian Precipitation—Highly Resolved Observational Data Integration Towards Evaluation of Water Resources (APHRODITE) project. APHRODITE's daily gridded precipitation is presently the only long-term, continental-scale, high-resolution daily product. The product is based on data collected at 5,000–12,000 stations, which represent 2.3–4.5 times the data made available through the Global Telecommunication System network and is used for most daily gridded precipitation products. Hence, the APHRODITE project has substantially improved the depiction of the areal distribution and variability of precipitation around the Himalayas, Southeast Asia, and mountainous regions of the Middle East. The APHRODITE project now contributes to studies such as the determination of Asian monsoon precipitation change, evaluation of water resources, ...

Secular Trends of Precipitation Amount, Frequency, and Intensity in the United States

Abstract: Twentieth century trends of precipitation are examined by a variety of methods to more fully describe how precipitation has changed or varied Since 1910, precipitation has increased by about 10% across the contiguous United States The increase in precipitation is reflected primarily in the heavy and extreme daily precipitation events For example, over half (53%) of the total increase of precipitation is due to positive trends in the upper 10 percentiles of the precipitation distribution These trends are highly significant, both practically and statistically The increase has arisen for two reasons First, an increase in the frequency of days with precipitation ]6 days (100 yr)−1[ has occurred for all categories of precipitation amount Second, for the extremely heavy precipitation events, an increase in the intensity of the events is also significantly contributing (about half) to the precipitation increase As a result, there is a significant trend in much of the United States of the highest

Smoking Rain Clouds over the Amazon

Abstract: Heavy smoke from forest fires in the Amazon was observed to reduce cloud droplet size and so delay the onset of precipitation from 1.5 kilometers above cloud base in pristine clouds to more than 5 kilometers in polluted clouds and more than 7 kilometers in pyro-clouds. Suppression of low-level rainout and aerosol washout allows transport of water and smoke to upper levels,where the clouds appear “smoking” as they detrain much of the pollution. Elevating the onset of precipitation allows invigoration of the updrafts,causing intense thunderstorms,large hail,and greater likelihood for overshooting cloud tops into the stratosphere. There,detrained pollutants and water vapor would have profound radiative impacts on the climate system. The invigorated storms release the latent heat higher in the atmosphere. This should substantially affect the regional and global circulation systems. Together,these processes affect the water cycle,the pollution burden of the atmosphere,and the dynamics of atmospheric circulation. Several hundred thousand deforestation and agricultural fires burn in Amazonia during the dry season each year, covering vast areas with dense smoke (1, 2). The smoke’s radiative impact suppresses surface heating and evaporation and stabilizes the lower troposphere. In turn, this suppresses the formation of convective clouds and precipitation and thus slows down the hydrological cycle (3). The microphysical effects of the aerosols on clouds and precipitation are no less important but have until now only been inferred from modeling and satellite observations. Convective clouds forming in smoky air show substantially reduced droplet size compared to that of similar clouds in clean air (4), with a mean satelliteretrieved effective droplet radius of 9 m in smoky clouds compared to 14 mi n clean clouds (5). This reduction of cloud droplet size by smoke is associated with an inhibition of the onset of precipitation radar echoes up to heights of 6.5 km, compared to 3 km in smoke-free clouds (6, 7). Here, we report in situ measurements for

Future extreme events in European climate: an exploration of regional climate model projections

Abstract: This paper presents an overview of changes in the extreme events that are most likely to affect Europe in forthcoming decades. A variety of diagnostic methods are used to determine how heat waves, heavy precipitation, drought, wind storms, and storm surges change between present (1961–90) and future (2071–2100) climate on the basis of regional climate model simulations produced by the PRUDENCE project. A summary of the main results follows. Heat waves – Regional surface warming causes the frequency, intensity and duration of heat waves to increase over Europe. By the end of the twenty first century, countries in central Europe will experience the same number of hot days as are currently experienced in southern Europe. The intensity of extreme temperatures increases more rapidly than the intensity of more moderate temperatures over the continental interior due to increases in temperature variability. Precipitation – Heavy winter precipitation increases in central and northern Europe and decreases in the south; heavy summer precipitation increases in north-eastern Europe and decreases in the south. Mediterranean droughts start earlier in the year and last longer. Winter storms – Extreme wind speeds increase between 45°N and 55°N, except over and south of the Alps, and become more north-westerly than cuurently. These changes are associated with reductions in mean sea-level pressure, leading to more North Sea storms and a corresponding increase in storm surges along coastal regions of Holland, Germany and Denmark, in particular. These results are found to depend to different degrees on model formulation. While the responses of heat waves are robust to model formulation, the magnitudes of changes in precipitation and wind speed are sensitive to the choice of regional model, and the detailed patterns of these changes are sensitive to the choice of the driving global model. In the case of precipitation, variation between models can exceed both internal variability and variability between different emissions scenarios.