2013 Volume 91 Issue 6 Pages 801-815
The rain microphysical budget associated with precipitation in the tropical deep convective regime is investigated through the analysis of grid-scale data from a 1.5-km-mesh two-dimensional cloud-resolving model simulation forced by large-scale forcing from tropical ocean global atmosphere coupled-ocean atmosphere response experiment. The rain grids are partitioned into several types based on the rain microphysical budget, and relationships between rainfall types and vertical profiles of vertical momentum, water vapor, and cloud hydrometeors are examined. Over 67% of the total rainfall is associated with the net rain source, in which the collection of cloud water by rain is greater than the melting of precipitation ice to rain in the presence of upward motions throughout the troposphere. Over 26% of the total rainfall is related to downward motions in the lower troposphere, leading to the melting of precipitation ice as a major term in the production of precipitation. About 15% of the total rainfall corresponds to dynamic hydrometeor advection only.
