Diurnal Variations in Arizona Monsoon Precipitation Frequencies

Balling, Robert C.; Brazel, Sandra W.

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1987)115<0342:dviamp>2.0.co;2

Cited by 50 publications

(24 citation statements)

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“…Finally, a higher horizontal resolution also results in a more realistic representation of topography over AZWNM, where summer convective activity develops over high-elevation terrains (Balling 1987;King and Balling 1994). Therefore, we speculate that part of the negative CM2.1 precipitation bias may be due to the more smoothed terrain in CM2.1, in addition to the lack of a GoC, that in turn disfavors convection.…”

Section: A Horizontal Resolutionmentioning

confidence: 91%

“…Over Arizona and western New Mexico (AZWNM), NAM rainfall is mainly associated with thunderstorms driven by daytime heating, with high-elevation terrains featuring an afternoon precipitation maximum and central Arizona lowlands featuring a near-midnight maximum (Balling 1987;King and Balling 1994). While modulated by daytime heating, AZWNM convective activity also features synoptic to submonthly variability (Berbery and Fox-Rabinovitz 2003;Wu et al 2009;Pascale and Bordoni 2016), as revealed by significant spectral peaks in Arizona rainfall in the 5-20-day band or even longer time scales (e.g., Cavazos et al 2002;Nolin and Hall-McKim 2006).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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The Impact of Horizontal Resolution on North American Monsoon Gulf of California Moisture Surges in a Suite of Coupled Global Climate Models

et al. 2016

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The impact of atmosphere and ocean horizontal resolution on the climatology of North American monsoon Gulf of California (GoC) moisture surges is examined in a suite of global circulation models (CM2.1, FLOR, CM2.5, CM2.6, and HiFLOR) developed at the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory (GFDL). These models feature essentially the same physical parameterizations but differ in horizontal resolution in either the atmosphere ('200, 50, and 25 km) or the ocean ('18, 0.258, and 0.18). Increasing horizontal atmospheric resolution from 200 to 50 km results in a drastic improvement in the model's capability of accurately simulating surge events. The climatological near-surface flow and moisture and precipitation anomalies associated with GoC surges are overall satisfactorily simulated in all higher-resolution models. The number of surge events agrees well with reanalyses, but models tend to underestimate July-August surge-related precipitation and overestimate September surge-related rainfall in the southwestern United States. Large-scale controls supporting the development of GoC surges, such as tropical easterly waves (TEWs), tropical cyclones (TCs), and trans-Pacific Rossby wave trains (RWTs), are also well captured, although models tend to underestimate the TEW and TC magnitude and number. Near-surface GoC surge features and their large-scale forcings (TEWs, TCs, and RWTs) do not appear to be substantially affected by a finer representation of the GoC at higher ocean resolution. However, the substantial reduction of the eastern Pacific warm sea surface temperature bias through flux adjustment in the Forecast-Oriented Low Ocean Resolution (FLOR) model leads to an overall improvement of tropical-extratropical controls on GoC moisture surges and the seasonal cycle of precipitation in the southwestern United States.

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Section: A Horizontal Resolutionmentioning

confidence: 91%

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Impact of Horizontal Resolution on North American Monsoon Gulf of California Moisture Surges in a Suite of Coupled Global Climate Models

et al. 2016

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“…Precipitation waxes in the evening hours and wanes during morning hours, a pattern that follows the strong influence of thermal heating (Sellers & Hill 1974). Numerous studies have shown that diurnal variability in convective activity and precipitation is strongly dependent upon geographic location (McDonald 1956, Ackerman 1959, Hales 1972, 1977, Brenner 1974, Balling & Brazel 1987, Maddox et al 1991, Watson et al 1994. For example, convective activity peaks in the early afternoon over the Colorado Plateau, in the early evening over southern Arizona and the Sonoran Highlands, and in the late evening and/or nighttime in the low desert areas of southern and central Arizona as well as northwestern Mexico and its coastal lowlands.…”

Section: Diurnal Variability Of Precipitationmentioning

confidence: 99%

The climate of the US Southwest

Sheppard¹,

Comrie

Packin³

et al. 2002

Clim. Res.

516

394

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“…The diurnal cycle is also essential in interpreting satellite rainfall estimates, since low earth orbiting satellites view a given area only intermittently, and interpolating between the measurements should be adjusted according to the time of the day. We examined the diurnal cycle using the method of harmonic analysis, a method used in many other investigations of diurnal rainfall patterns (e.g., Balling and Brazel 1987;Bell and Reid 1993;Dai 2001). In this method, the diurnal cycle is expressed by Fourier decomposition:…”

Section: Spatial Variability Of Diurnal Cyclementioning

confidence: 99%

“…8, we show the normalized amplitude of the first harmonic, the variance explained by the first harmonic, and the time of the diurnal maximum derived from the phase of the first harmonic, for the rainfall frequency statistic. We obtained the normalized first harmonic amplitude by dividing the amplitude of the first harmonic by the am- plitude of the zeroth harmonic, following Balling and Brazel (1987) and Dai et al (1999). This result quantifies the peakedness of the hourly time series, ranging from zero for a flat time series to two in the case of all zero values, except one rainfall peak during the day.…”

Section: ͑3͒mentioning

confidence: 99%

Submesoscale Spatiotemporal Variability of North American Monsoon Rainfall over Complex Terrain

et al. 2007

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The authors analyze information from rain gauges, geostationary infrared satellites, and low earth orbiting radar in order to describe and characterize the submesoscale (Ͻ75 km) spatial pattern and temporal dynamics of rainfall in a 50 km ϫ 75 km study area located in Sonora, Mexico, in the periphery of the North American monsoon system core region. The temporal domain spans from 1 July to 31 August 2004, corresponding to one monsoon season. Results reveal that rainfall in the study region is characterized by high spatial and temporal variability, strong diurnal cycles in both frequency and intensity with maxima in the evening hours, and multiscaling behavior in both temporal and spatial fields. The scaling parameters of the spatial rainfall fields exhibit dependence on the rainfall rate at the synoptic scale. The rainfall intensity exhibits a slightly stronger diurnal cycle compared to the rainfall frequency, and the maximum lag time between the two diurnal peaks is within 2.4 h, with earlier peaks observed for rainfall intensity. The time of maximum cold cloud occurrence does not vary with the infrared threshold temperature used (215-235 K), while the amplitude of the diurnal cycle varies in such a way that deep convective cells have stronger diurnal cycles. Furthermore, the results indicate that the diurnal cycle of cold cloud occurrence can be used as a surrogate for some basic features of the diurnal cycle of rainfall. The spatial pattern and temporal dynamics of rainfall are modulated by topographic features and large-scale features (circulation and moisture fields as related to geographical location). As compared to valley areas, mountainous areas are characterized by an earlier diurnal peak, an earlier date of maximum precipitation, closely clustered rainy hours, frequent yet small rainfall events, and less dependence of precipitation accumulation on elevation. As compared to the northern section of the study area, the southern section is characterized by strong convective systems that peak late diurnally. The results of this study are important for understanding the physical processes involved, improving the representation of submesoscale variability in models, downscaling rainfall data from coarse meteorological models to smaller hydrological scales, and interpreting and validating remote sensing rainfall estimates.

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Diurnal Variations in Arizona Monsoon Precipitation Frequencies

Cited by 50 publications

References 0 publications

The Impact of Horizontal Resolution on North American Monsoon Gulf of California Moisture Surges in a Suite of Coupled Global Climate Models

The Impact of Horizontal Resolution on North American Monsoon Gulf of California Moisture Surges in a Suite of Coupled Global Climate Models

The climate of the US Southwest

Submesoscale Spatiotemporal Variability of North American Monsoon Rainfall over Complex Terrain

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