Contributions of the Liquid and Ice Phases to Global Surface Precipitation: Observations and Global Climate Modeling

This study is the first to reach a global view of the precipitation process partitioning, using a combination of satellite and global climate modeling data. The pathways investigated are (1) precipitating ice (ice/snow/graupel) that forms above the freezing level and melts to produce rain (S) followed by additional condensation and collection as the melted precipitating ice falls to the surface (R); (2) growth completely through condensation and collection (coalescence), warm rain (W); and (3) precipitating ice (primarily snow) that falls to the surface (SS). To quantify the amounts, data from satellite-based radar measurements—CloudSat, GPM, and TRMM—are used, as well as climate model simulations from the Community Atmosphere Model (CAM) and the UK Met Office Unified Model (UM).

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  • Andrew Heymsfield
    heyms1@ucar.edu
    UCAR/NCAR - Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Laboratory

Keywords

Resource Type dataset
Temporal Range Begin N/A
Temporal Range End N/A
Temporal Resolution N/A
Bounding Box North Lat 90.0
Bounding Box South Lat -90.0
Bounding Box West Long -180.0
Bounding Box East Long 180.0
Spatial Representation N/A
Spatial Resolution 1.0 degreesLatitude
1.0 degreesLongitude
Related Links N/A
Additional Information N/A
Resource Format application/x-tika-ooxml
text/plain
Standardized Resource Format ASCII
XML
Asset Size N/A
Legal Constraints

Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
Access Constraints None
Software Implementation Language N/A

Resource Support Name Andrew Heymsfield
Resource Support Email heyms1@ucar.edu
Resource Support Organization UCAR/NCAR - Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Laboratory
Distributor N/A
Metadata Contact Name GDEX Curator
Metadata Contact Email datahelp@ucar.edu
Metadata Contact Organization UCAR/NCAR - GDEX

Author Heymsfield, Andrew
Schmitt, Carl
Chen, Chih-Chieh-Jack
Bansemer, Aaron
Gettelman, Andrew
Field, Paul R
Liu, Chuntao
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - GDEX
Publication Date 2020-04-10
Digital Object Identifier (DOI) https://doi.org/10.5065/vm6a-0g11
Alternate Identifier N/A
Resource Version N/A
Topic Category N/A
Progress N/A
Metadata Date 2025-05-15T06:48:49-06:00
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.gdex::93bf94ea-38b7-4d72-a4cb-8a9a8d4091fd
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Heymsfield, Andrew, Schmitt, Carl, Chen, Chih-Chieh-Jack, Bansemer, Aaron, Gettelman, Andrew, Field, Paul R, Liu, Chuntao. (2020). Contributions of the Liquid and Ice Phases to Global Surface Precipitation: Observations and Global Climate Modeling. UCAR/NCAR - GDEX. https://doi.org/10.5065/vm6a-0g11. Accessed 24 October 2025.

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