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Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Microphysics

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Full-Text Articles in Meteorology

Developing Spatially Accurate Rainfall Predictions For The San Francisco Bay Area Through Case Studies Of Atmospheric River And Other Synoptic Events, Alison Bridger, Dung Nguyen, Sen Chiao Sep 2019

Developing Spatially Accurate Rainfall Predictions For The San Francisco Bay Area Through Case Studies Of Atmospheric River And Other Synoptic Events, Alison Bridger, Dung Nguyen, Sen Chiao

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

Rainfall patterns in the San Francisco Bay Area (SFBA) are highly influenced by local topography. It has been a forecasting challenge for the main US forecast models. This study investigates the ability of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to improve upon forecasts, with particular emphasis on the rain shadow common to the southern end of the SFBA. Three rain events were evaluated: a mid-season atmospheric river (AR) event with copious rains; a typical non-AR frontal passage rain event; and an area-wide rain event in which zero rain was recorded in the southern SFBA. The results show that, with …


Numerical Investigations Of Atmospheric Rivers And The Rain Shadow Over The Santa Clara Valley, Dalton Behringer, Sen Chiao Mar 2019

Numerical Investigations Of Atmospheric Rivers And The Rain Shadow Over The Santa Clara Valley, Dalton Behringer, Sen Chiao

Faculty Publications, Meteorology and Climate Science

This study investigated precipitation distribution patterns in association with atmospheric rivers (ARs). The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model was employed to simulate two strong atmospheric river events. The precipitation forecasts were highly sensitive to cloud microphysics parameterization schemes. Thus, radar observed and simulated ZH and ZDR were evaluated to provide information about the drop-size distribution (DSD). Four microphysics schemes (WSM-5, WSM-6, Thompson, and WDM-6) with nested simulations (3 km, 1 km, and 1/3 km) were conducted. One of the events mostly contained bright-band (BB) rainfall and lasted less than 24 h, while the other contained both BB and non-bright-band …