Microphysical Characteristics of A Cold Front Snowstorm Event in the West Tianshan Mountains

Fan LIU; Jinru ZHANG; Jing LIU; Lianmei YANG

doi:10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.2110.20220

Chinese Journal of Atmospheric Sciences > 2023 > 47(2): 417-429. > DOI: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.2110.20220

LIU Fan, ZHANG Jinru, LIU Jing, et al. 2023. Microphysical Characteristics of A Cold Front Snowstorm Event in the West Tianshan Mountains [J]. Chinese Journal of Atmospheric Sciences (in Chinese), 47(2): 417−429. DOI: 10.3878/j.issn.1006-9895.2110.20220

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Microphysical Characteristics of A Cold Front Snowstorm Event in the West Tianshan Mountains

Fan LIU^{1, 2, 3,},
Jinru ZHANG^{1, 2, 3},
Jing LIU^{1, 2, 3},
Lianmei YANG^{1, 2, 3, ,}

1.
Institute of Desert and Meteorology, China Meteorological Administration, Urumqi 830002
2.
Xinjiang Cloud Precipitation Physics and Cloud Water Resources Development Laboratory, Urumqi 830002
3.
Field Scientific Observation Base of Cloud Precipitation Physics in West Tianshan Mountains, Urumqi 830002

Funds: National Key Research and Development Program "Monitoring, Warning and Prevention of Major Natural Disasters" Key Project (Grant 2018YFC1507102), Special Fund of Chinese Central Government for Basic Scientific Research Operations in Commonweal Research Institutes (Grant IDM2020002), National Natural Science Foundation of China (Grant U2003106), Central Asian Fund for Atmospheric Science Research (Grant CAAS201916), Project of Desert Meteorological Science Foundation of China (Grant Sqj2018007)

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Received Date: October 29, 2020
Accepted Date: October 31, 2021
Available Online: November 11, 2021
Published Date: March 14, 2023

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Abstract

Abstract

Based on a two-dimensional video disdrometer, combined with cloud radar, wind profile radar, microwave radiometer, GPS/MET water vapor, and other vertically-scanning instruments, the microphysical characteristics of a cold front snowstorm event in the West Tianshan Mountain on February 18 and 19, 2020, were analyzed and studied. A classification algorithm for the snowflake and graupel was designed to quantitatively study the microphysical characteristics of the snowfall. The results show that (1) in the cold front invasion and dynamic forcing stage, the precipitation particles are mainly snowflakes and the microphysical processes are deposition and aggregation; (2) in the stage of cold front control bringing wind chill, the precipitation particles are snowflakes and graupel, and the microphysical processes are aggregation and riming, with the aggregation exhibiting a positive impact on the riming; (3) in the cold front passage, less ice nucleation and enough subcooled water favor riming due to the rise of the cloud top temperature. Unlike those in Nanjing, the snowflake diameter and snow intensity in the West Tianshan Mountains are relatively small, but graupel has a greater contribution to the snow intensity. The raindrop size and Gamma distributions are fitted using two melting models, similar to the characteristics of local stratiform cloud precipitation.
- West Tianshan region,
- Solid precipitation,
- Riming,
- Microphysical characteristics

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References (33)

References

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