Abstract
Rain events can be characterized by rain drop size distribution (DSD) that denotes the number of drops as a function of diameter per unit size interval and per unit volume of space. DSD (at ground level) describes the microstructure of precipitation during different phases of rain varying both spatially and temporally. DSD can be influenced by the nature and origin of rain. The present study investigates the role of continental and maritime airflow in influencing the precipitation features near the land-sea boundary. The data of the rain DSD used in the present analysis are collected from a ground-based disdrometer located at Kolkata, India, near land-sea boundary during the year of 2011–2017. The dataset is divided into two categories, namely, maritime and continental rainfall, based on the airflow trajectories associated with rain events exclusively from Bay of Bengal or land region in the west of Kolkata as derived from TRAJSTAT software. The events with trajectories extending both over land and sea region are excluded for the present study. Variations of the DSD parameters using the gamma model are presented showing the abundance of smaller drops during maritime rain events whereas dominance of larger rain drops in the case of the continental rain events. The Z-R relations are also found to be significantly different for these two types of rain. The present study reveals the microstructures of rain at a location where the influences of both land and sea climatic features prevail.
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The datasets analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on reasonable request.
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This study follows all the ethical standards and does not violate any of them.
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Acknowledgements
One of the authors (AM) thankfully acknowledges the support provided by University Grants Commission, New Delhi, India, through the Basic Science Research Faculty Fellowship under Grant F.18-1/2011(BSR).
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All authors contributed to the supply conception and design. Material preparation, data collection and analysis were performed by Pallabi Saha, Souvik Majumder and Animesh Maitra. The first draft was prepared by Pallabi Saha, and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.
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Highlights
• Significant differences have been noted for continental and maritime rain near the land-sea boundary.
• Abundances of smaller drops in maritime rain and of larger drops in continental rain are observed.
• Maritime rainfall shows lower intensity rain than continental rainfall.
• Differences in DSDs between continental and maritime rain become less prominent for increasing rain rate
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Saha, P., Majumder, S. & Maitra, A. Rain drop size distribution analysis at a tropical location near land-sea boundary. Theor Appl Climatol 147, 487–498 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03809-4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-021-03809-4