Radar meteorology · Precipitation microphysics
Compared drop-size distributions across rainfall regimes and evaluated whether their microphysical signatures remained consistent along the South China coast.
01 / Question
Rainfall rate alone does not tell us whether precipitation is made up of many small drops or fewer large drops. This work used two-dimensional video disdrometers to examine how those microphysical structures vary by precipitation type, storm environment and location.
02 / Approach
03 / Result
Convective rain generally contained larger drops than stratiform rain. At the highest observed convective rain rates, mass-weighted mean diameter levelled off while total drop concentration continued to rise, consistent with a balance between coalescence and breakup.
04
The outer-rainband drop spectra from Wipha were broadly similar at Hong Kong, Enping and Yangchun. Tropical-cyclone cases also showed smaller convective–stratiform contrasts than non-cyclone cases, suggesting a more uniform microphysical environment within the sampled rainbands.
05
The analysis was preliminary and event-based. A larger sample, consistent quality control across instruments and formal uncertainty testing would be needed before generalizing the cross-site or tropical-cyclone contrasts.
Project material