Year: 2014
Type: article
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.
Source: Geophysical Research Letters
DOI: 10.1002/2014gl061222
Authors: Martin S. Singh, Paul A. O'Gorman
Institution: Massachusetts Institute of Technology
Language: English
Subfield: Atmospheric Science
Field: Earth and Planetary Sciences
Domain: Physical Sciences
SDG: Climate action
Open Access status: bronze
Funder: National Science Foundation
OpenAlex ID: W2137928718