An analysis of dynamical and microphysical characteristics using wind profiler and C-band scanning radars for deep convective clouds observed during CACTI field campaign

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Description

Deep convective cloud systems serve as a primary mechanism for the transfer of heat, moisture and momentum through vertical air motion and entrainment/detrainment processes. However, impacts of vertical transport on redistribution of mass and water at higher altitudes are still unclear. The present study investigates how the convective core characteristics influence the characteristics in the upper-level microphysical characteristics in deep convective clouds, using vertically-pointing and scanning radar measurements during the Cloud, Aerosol, and Complex Terrain Interactions (CACTI) field campaign. In the presentation, we will propose to use C-SAPR2 hemispheric sky (HS) range-height indicator (RHI) scan measurements to retrieve vertical air motion. Same as the radar wind profiler (RWP) vertical air motion retrieval technique, the vertical air motion at the zenith was retrieved by extracting the hydrometeor fall speed component from the observed radial velocity. We extend this vertical velocity retrieval method to the tilted radar angles assuming a constant horizontal wind at the same zenith angle at the same height. This approach is limited to vicinity angles of zenith; at lower elevation angles, horizontal wind variabilities cannot be ignored. We will present an evaluation of the retrieval to find to what degrees of zenith angle this approach can be applied for the HSRHI scans, by comparing with the RWP vertical velocity retrievals. The C-SAPR2 HSRHI scans also captured polarimetric characteristics in anvil regions accompanied by deep convection. We will present how such polarimetric characteristics and anvil characteristics were evolved and how they were related to convective core characteristics (e.g., vertical velocity, mass flux).