On the parameterization of the microphysical processes associated with many types of winter precipitation

Several types of precipitation, such as freezing rain, ice pellets, and wet snow, are commonly observed during winter storms. The objective of this study is to better understand the formation of these winter precipitation types. To address this issue, detailed melting and refreezing of precipitation was added onto an existing bulk microphysics scheme. These modifications allow the formation of mixed-phase particles and these particles in turn lead to, or affect, the formation of many of the other types of precipitation. The precipitation type characteristics, such as the mass content, liquid fraction, and threshold diameters formed during a storm over St John's, Newfoundland, Canada, are studied and compared with observations. Many of these features were reproduced by the model. Sensitivity experiments with the model were carried out to examine the dependence of precipitation characteristics in this event on thresholds of particle evolution in the new parameterization.

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Copyright 2010 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.
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Author Theriault, Julie
Stewart, R.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2010-05-01T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2025-07-17T15:26:15.852147
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:10567
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Theriault, Julie, Stewart, R.. (2010). On the parameterization of the microphysical processes associated with many types of winter precipitation. UCAR/NCAR - Library. https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7pz599n. Accessed 27 August 2025.

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