Influence of microphysics on the scaling of precipitation extremes with temperature
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Author(s)
Singh, Martin Simran
O'Gorman, Paul
Date Issued
August 2014
Journal
Geophysical Research Letters
Publisher
Wiley Blackwell
Citation
Singh, Martin S., and Paul A. O’Gorman. “Influence of Microphysics on the Scaling of Precipitation Extremes with Temperature.” Geophysical Research Letters 41, no. 16 (August 22, 2014): 6037–6044. © 2014 American Geophysical Union
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Final published version
Abstract
Simulations of radiative-convective equilibrium with a cloud-system resolving model are used to investigate the scaling of high percentiles of the precipitation distribution (precipitation extremes) over a wide range of surface temperatures. At surface temperatures above roughly 295 K, precipitation extremes increase with warming in proportion to the increase in surface moisture, following what is termed Clausius-Clapeyron (CC) scaling. At lower temperatures, the rate of increase of precipitation extremes depends on the choice of cloud and precipitation microphysics scheme and the accumulation period, and it differs markedly from CC scaling in some cases. Precipitation extremes are found to be sensitive to the fall speeds of hydrometeors, and this partly explains the different scaling results obtained with different microphysics schemes. The results suggest that microphysics play an important role in determining the response of convective precipitation extremes to warming, particularly when ice- and mixed-phase processes are important.
MIT Department
Massachusetts Institute of Technology. Department of Earth, Atmospheric, and Planetary Sciences
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Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1002/2014GL061222
