Hu, X. F., and Coauthors, 2025: Airborne investigation of riming: Cloud and precipitation microphysics within a weak convective system in North China. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 42(3), 515−526, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-024-4137-3.
Citation: Hu, X. F., and Coauthors, 2025: Airborne investigation of riming: Cloud and precipitation microphysics within a weak convective system in North China. Adv. Atmos. Sci., 42(3), 515−526, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00376-024-4137-3.

Airborne Investigation of Riming: Cloud and Precipitation Microphysics within a Weak Convective System in North China

  • The process of riming significantly impacts the microphysical characteristics of clouds. This study uses aircraft and radar observation data in stratiform clouds with convection embedded that occurred in the central and southern regions of North China on 22 May 2017. The microphysical structural characteristics and processes near the embedded convection core and in the stratiform cloud are analyzed comparatively. Particular attention is given to the effect of riming on the microphysical properties near the upper boundary of the melting layer and to the factors influencing riming efficiency. The collaborative observations reveal that the particle size distributions observed near the convection core and in the stratiform region are close, while the particle properties like habit and riming degree are quite different. Above the melting layer, larger plate-like ice particles and supercooled water droplets (D > 50 μm) are more abundant near the convective core, leading to higher collision efficiencies between ice particles and supercooled water droplets. Larger fluctuation amplitudes of vertical airflow near the convective core also contribute to the increased riming activity and the formation of more heavily rimed particles, such as graupel. Furthermore, in situ measurements from airborne probes also revealed that above the melting layer, the riming process involves two stages: the mass of snow crystals grows as supercooled droplets merge internally without changing size, followed by external freezing that significantly enlarges the crystals.
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