The effect on the evolution of the drop spectrum in clouds of the preconditioning of air by successive convective elements

✍ Scribed by S. Roesner; A. I. Flossmann; H. R. Pruppacher

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1990
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 855 KB
• Volume: 116
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49711649607

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

A multiple air‐parcel model is used to study the effect on the drop size spectrum inside convective clouds of preconditioning of air by successive convective elements. Numerical evaluation of this model shows that each rising air parcel establishes a new environment for the air parcel following it, thus substantially affecting its thermodynamic behaviour. This preconditioning of air allows successive air parcels to penetrate an inversion and produce precipitation‐sized drops under conditions which are not conducive to precipitation when only a single air parcel is considered.