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In this study, we investigated the impact of rainfall rate and temperature during fruit development on chilling injury (CI) of Queen pineapples (Ananas comosus L. Merr) after cold storage at 13 °C. The pineapples were induced to flower in October 2016 and May 2017. Rainfall and field temperature during fruit development were recorded. The fruit were harvested in March 2017 and October 2017 (135 d after anthesis), respectively. Visual appearance, CI score, lightness (L*) value, parameters related to membrane integrity, and the activities of enzymes related to browning of the tissue adjacent to the core were monitored in the fruit after 7 and 14 d of cold storage followed by room temperature storage (27 ± 1 °C) (RT) for 2 d. High CI incidence was associated with high rainfall rather than the field temperature (approx. 27–29 °C) during fruit development. The fruit harvested in March experienced higher rainfall during fruit development than the fruit harvested in October. The CI severity of the fruit harvested in March was greater than that of fruit harvested in October. The higher CI severity of the fruit harvested in March was accompanied with reduced membrane integrity as well as enzymatic browning compared to the fruit harvested in October. In conclusion, high rainfall during fruit development is a major factor for CI of Queen pineapple grown in tropical zones. The results of this investigation provide insight into the causes underlying the loss of fruit quality during storage and marketing.

Radio waves especially at the millimeter-wave band are known to be attenuated by rain. Radio engineers and designers need to be able to predict the time of the day when radio signal will be attenuated so as to provide measures to mitigate this effect. This is achieved by characterizing the rainfall intensity for a particular region of interest into worst month and worst hour of the day. This paper characterized rainfall in Nigeria into worst year, worst month, and worst hour. It is shown that for the period of study, 2008 and 2009 are the worst years, while September is the most frequent worst month in most of the stations. The evening time (LT) is the worst hours of the day in virtually all the stations.

The knowledge of 1-minute rainfall rate distribution is very important in order for the prediction of rainfall attenuation at any location. Due to the availability of 1-minute rainfall rate data is limited, conversion of rainfall rate distribution over a long integration time into the distribution for 1-minute is needed. Therefore several rainfall rate conversion methods were proposed.

The paper presents a detailed investigation of magnitudes and properties pertaining to the large population of rainfall events recorded during 49 years at the Fabra Observatory in Barcelona. The study includes a statistical analysis of event durationT and rainfall quantityQ together with the statistical rainfall rate parameters: $$\bar R,\overline {R^2 }$$ ,σ 2(R) and maximum Rm within an event. The decorrelation timeτ is also analysed. It is found thatQ, T, andτ can be well modelled by a lognormal distribution, but $$\bar R,\overline {R^2 }$$ ,σ 2 and Rm are only so for a limited range of precipitation ratesR. The regression analysis between pairs of logarithms of the magnitudes investigated is generally good and a regression coefficient is often better than 0.9. Comparison with published work is also carried out. An attempt is made to discriminate between heavy and non-heavy rainfall rates, and the 50 mm/h threshold is used for the study. The twelve-monthly running average indicates that the rainfall amount has a small increasing trend over the fifty year period. However, this trend is reversed when considering heavy rains. Finally, the return period in years to exceeding a thresholdR within an event is also investigated and the distribution of the population of annual extremes is found to be Gumbel II.

Convective rainfall rate distribution is not very uniform even at a local scale. In order to make an evaluation of it in the urban area of Barcelona, a dense rain gauge network has been stablished in this city. The gauges are of high resolution tilting bucket type. In this paper, preliminary results are presented. The distributions obtained show a strong variation of the rainfall rate for the several parts of the city. The intensity-duration curves for severe storms have been made in the various points of measure together with the areal reduction factors of rainfall. The analysis of raincell movement gives E-W as a predominant direction and a speed in the 3–12 m/s range.

The equations for estimating the rain echo power when FM-pulsed radar or FM-CW radar is used are derived. The results show that, with adequate frequency range selected, rain echo power may have a well-linear correlation with the rainfall rate, irrespective of the pattern of drop-size spectrum. Thus, it provides good remote sensing data for rainfall rate measurement.

The requisites for defining climatic regions of characteristic rainfall rate behaviour is examined. It is pointed out that a suitable classification scheme must be based on rainfall rate data themselves and not on other meteorological or geographic considerations. It is further argued that two or more independent parameters must be employed to characterize the rainfall climate, as they must for the point rainfall-rate distributions themselves. Using the parameters of the power law approximations to 47 rain-rate distributions, a suitable climatic map is derived for Canada. The implications for global extension are examined.

A large, digitized data base is employed in a detailed examination of the mathematical form of the point rainfall-rate distribution function. The optimum form is found to depend on both the data sampling rate and the rain rate limits considered. In general, the lognormal function appears to provide a very good approximation to the distribution. It is found, however, that a better fit is provided by piecewise power-law approximations to different portions of the distribution. As the sampling interval is reduced to the ultimate limit imposed by the tipping bucket itself, a single power relationship is found to provide the best fit over the range of rainfall rates from several mm/h to the observed upper limit.

A method for the prediction of the rain attenuation statistics is proposed, based on a global rainfall rate distribution model. This method also employs the spatial autocorrelation function to describe the inhomogeneity of the rainfall medium. A comparison with a prediction method recently proposed by the International Radio Consultative Committee and an other recent model is made, which shows that our model provides better results.

The equations for calculating the echo power from meteorological targets and the energy distribution within radar beam were derived, by taking the earth curvature, atmospheric refractivity gradient, reflection factor and the roughness of the earth's surface into consideration. The estimation based on these equations shows that the rain echo power may deviate from its normal value by a factor of −3 to +6 db depending on the radar height, antenna elevation, wave length, beam width, surface reflectivity and roughness.

A rapidly switched dual-polarization radar technique is used for the first time to obtain two-dimensional spatial distributions of the statistical characteristics of the sizes and concentration of rain drops in rain. These have been obtained using a high-resolution 10-cm wavelength radar, and the data have been used to estimate rainfall rates within small volumes to a much greater accuracy than is available from conventional radar measurements. The technique also gives a clear distinction between ice particles and rain drops.

Made available in DSpace on 2018-12-11T17:30:25Z (GMT). No. of bitstreams: 0 Previous issue date: 2017-05-01 Agence Nationale de la Recherche Centre de Coopération Internationale en Recherche Agronomique pour le Développement Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa do Estado de São Paulo (FAPESP) Universidade de São Paulo Background and aims: Comparing root functioning under contrasting rainfall regimes can help assessing the capacity of plant species to cope with more intense and frequent drought predicted under climate change context. While the awareness of the need to study the whole root system is growing, most of the studies of root functioning through rhizosphere analyses have been restricted to the topsoil. Our study aimed to assess whether the depth in the soil and the rainfall amount affect root functioning, and notably the fate of nutrients within the rhizosphere. Methods: We compared pH and nutrient availability within the rhizosphere and bulk soil along a 4-m deep soil profile in a 5-year-old eucalypt (Eucalyptus grandis) plantation under undisturbed and reduced rainfall treatments. Results: The exchangeable K concentration and the pH of the bulk soil were not influenced by the reduced rainfall treatment. By contrast, the H3O+ concentration in the rhizosphere was significantly greater than that of the bulk soil, only in the reduced rainfall plot. The concentrations of exchangeable K in the rhizosphere were significantly larger than those of the bulk soil in both treatments but this difference was higher in the reduced rainfall plot, notably below the depth of 2 m. Both exchangeable K and H3O+ concentration significantly increased within the rhizosphere in the reduced rainfall treatment at soil depth down to 4 m. Conclusions: The amount of K brought to the roots by mass flow was estimated and could not explain the observed increase in exchangeable K concentration within the rhizosphere. A more likely explanation was root-induced weathering of K-bearing minerals, partly related to enhanced rhizosphere acidification. Our results demonstrate that root functioning can be considerably altered as a response to drought down to large depths. CIRAD UMR Eco&Sols, 2 Place Viala INRA UMR Eco&Sols, 2 Place Viala FCA UNESP LCF ESALQ CENA ESALQ FCA UNESP Agence Nationale de la Recherche: ANR-13-AGRO-0005 FAPESP: 2013/25998-4

The demographic performance of avian predators is influenced by climate variations. The Plant Area Index (PAI) is considered a key descriptor of the (evolving) vegetation sensitive to climate and soil aridity and drought stress. To assess if the increased aridity regime in the mediterranean region affects the reproduction of a forest predator, the breeding success of the Tawny Owl Strix aluco was studied over 7 years (1997–2003) in Castelporziano, central Italy. The inter-annual fluctuations in owl demographic output observed in neighbor forest and agricultural sites were compared with climatic variables (rainfall, minimum and maximum air temperature, aridity index) and changes in the PAI estimated by satellite imagery. Out of 326 breeding attempts, the percentage of successful pairs per year ranged between 4 and 28 %, the number of fledglings per successful pair ranged between 1.0 and 1.8 and breeding rate (i.e. the number of fledglings per breeding pair) ranged between 0.1 and 0.4. Demographic, climatic and remotely sensed indexes showed coherent variations among years. Rainfall and lower aridity index are associated with a higher breeding success. The relationship between PAI and breeding rate was found significant only in forest sites. Results suggest that Tawny Owls may positively respond to drier weather conditions by reducing the breeding rate.

Motuo and Naqu are two typical regions of the Tibetan Plateau with different geographical locations and climate regimes. These differences may lead to discrepancies in the raindrop size distributions (DSDs) and precipitation microphysical processes between the two regions. This paper investigates discrepancies in the DSDs using disdrometer data obtained during the rainy season in Motuo and Naqu. The DSD characteristics are studied under five different rainfall rate categories and two precipitation types (stratiform and convective). For the total data sets, the number concentrations of drops with diameters D > 0.6 (D < 0.6) mm are higher (lower) in Naqu than in Motuo. The fitted normalized gamma distributions of the averaged DSDs for the five rainfall rate categories show that Naqu has a larger (lower) mass-weighted mean diameter Dm (normalized intercept parameter, log10Nw) than does Motuo. The difference in Dm between Naqu and Motuo increases with the rainfall rate. Convective clusters in Naqu could be identified as continental-like, while convective precipitation in Motuo could be classified as maritime-like. The relationships between the shape factor μ and slope parameter Λ of the gamma distribution model, the radar reflectivity Z and the rainfall rate R are also derived. Furthermore, the possible causative mechanism for the notable DSD variation between the two regions during the rainy season is illustrated using reanalysis data and automated weather station observations. Cold rain processes are mainly responsible for the low concentrations of large drops observed in Naqu, whereas warm rain prevails in Motuo, producing abundant small drops.

Generating a mathematical relationship between rainfall and runoff plays an important role in the decision-making process and control of surface flows. This structure has levels of uncertainty based on the hydrological conditions, land cover, time, depth, and rate of the rainfall events. The main purpose of this study was to determine the degree of uncertainty and its role in calculating runoff generated by rainfall. Therefore, a probabilistic decision model based on copula multivariate functions was developed to predict the depth and maximum rate of the rainfall at different return periods. The relationship between rainfall rate and depth with peak hydrograph flow and runoff volume for flood events over a 37-year period was formulated through fuzzy set theory. The feasible domain of the fuzzy problem was searched using a multi-objective optimization genetic algorithm based on the non-dominated sorting to find the extreme points. The obtained solutions were used as a fuzzy response to calculate the runoff of the Barz plain in Khuzestan province in southwestern Iran. The results showed that the developed fuzzy-probabilistic model was able to predict more than 92% of flood events within the defined fuzzy range. Furthermore, the maximum model error occurred in predicting rainfall depth and runoff volume, and the maximum rainfall rate and runoff flow could be calculated more accurately.

The NWCSAF (Support to Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting Satellite Application Facility) software package provides operational products that ensure the optimum use of meteorological satellite data in Nowcasting and Very Short Range Forecasting. The National Observatory of Athens operates NWCSAF since 2016. The rainfall estimates obtained by the Convective Rainfall Rate (CRR) nighttime algorithm and the Convective Rainfall Rate from Cloud Physical Properties (CRR-Ph) algorithm of the 2016 version are verified against rainfall observations provided by the dense network of automated surface weather stations operated by the National Observatory of Athens (NOA) for a full year. For the verification a temporal upscaling to 30 min was applied to all datasets. Overall, CRR overestimates the extent of the precipitation areas while at the same time it underestimates the precipitation totals. CRR-Ph clearly outperforms the CRR nighttime algorithm regarding the accurate delineation of precipitation areas but it overestimates the precipitation totals. Heavier precipitation is consistently detected by both algorithms although the false alarms rate is high. Seasonal variations are found, with the most important the poorer estimation performance during spring.

The relationship ( $$\varvec{Z} = \varvec{AR}^{\varvec{b}}$$ ) between radar reflectivity factor, $$\varvec{ Z }$$ and rainfall rate, $$\varvec{R }$$ is studied using the micro rain radar (MRR) observation located over Darjeeling (27.05° N, 88.26° E, 2194 m above the msl) in the foothills of the eastern Himalayan Mountains during Indian summer monsoon and post monsoon seasons (June–October) 2013. Observations from MRR are classified mainly into two types, stratiform and convective, based on the bright band and non-bright band signatures in the radar reflectivity, respectively. We have observed 12 and 7 cases for the stratiform convective rain events, respectively. In the present study MRR is operated mostly during low intensity rainfall rate (0.02–20 mm/h). During southwest monsoon season $$\varvec{Z} {-} \varvec{R }$$ relation for the stratiform and convective rainfall types are found to be $$\varvec{Z} = 272\varvec{R}^{1.78}$$ and $$\varvec{Z} = 192\varvec{R}^{1.54}$$ respectively. $$\varvec{Z} {-} \varvec{R }$$ relation for both stratiform and convective rain shows high temporal variation during different months of monsoon and post monsoon seasons. The coefficient $$\varvec{A}$$ varies between 225 and 289 for stratiform rain and between 153 and 235 for convective rain. The exponent $$\varvec{b}$$ varies between 1.4 and 2.1 for stratiform rain while between 1.2 and 1.8 for convective rain. Interestingly, we observed a distinct relation with smaller values of $$\varvec{A}$$ and $$\varvec{b}$$ for convective rain than stratiform rain over Darjeeling. The height dependence of $$\varvec{A}$$ and $$\varvec{b}$$ are also studied which is found to be very small up to ~ 1.5 km above the surface for both types of the precipitating systems.

The characteristics of raindrop size distribution (DSD) over the Tibetan Plateau and southern China are studied in this paper, using the DSD data from April to August 2014 collected by HSC-PS32 disdrometers in Nagqu and Yangjiang, comprising a total of 9430 and 6366 1-min raindrop spectra, respectively. The raindrop spectra, characteristics of parameter variations with rainfall rate, and the relationships between reflectivity factor (Z) and rainfall rate (R) are analyzed, as well as their DSD changes with precipitation type and rainfall rate. The results show that the average raindrop spectra appear to be one-peak curves, the number concentration for larger drops increase significantly with rainfall rate, and its value over southern China is much higher, especially in convective rain. Standardized Gamma distributions better describe DSD for larger drops, especially for convective rain in southern China. All three Gamma parameters for stratiform precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau are much higher, while its shape parameter (μ) and mass-weighted mean diameter (D m), for convective precipitation, are less. In terms of parameter variation with rainfall rate, the normalized intercept parameter (N w) over the Tibetan Plateau for stratiform rain increases with rainfall rate, which is opposite to the situation in convective rain. The μ over the Tibetan Plateau for stratiform and convective precipitation types decreases with an increase in rainfall rate, which is opposite to the case for D m variation. In Z–R relationships, like “Z = AR b ”, the coefficient A over the Tibetan Plateau is smaller, while its b is higher, when the rain type transfers from stratiform to convective ones. Furthermore, with an increase in rainfall rate, parameters A and b over southern China increase gradually, while A over the Tibetan Plateau decreases substantially, which differs from the findings of previous studies. In terms of geographic location and climate over the Tibetan Plateau and southern China, the precipitation in the pre-flood seasons is dominated by strong convective rain, while weak convective rain occurs frequently in northern Tibet with lower humidity and higher altitude.

Peninsular India and Sri Lanka receive major part of their annual rainfall during the northeast monsoon season (October–December). The long-term trend in the northeast monsoon rainfall over the Indian Ocean and peninsular India is examined in the vicinity of global warming scenario using the Global Precipitation Climatology Project (GPCP) dataset available for the period 1979–2010. The result shows a significant increasing trend in rainfall rate of about 0.5 mm day−1 decade−1 over a large region bounded by 10 °S–10 °N and 55 °E–100 °E. The interannual variability of seasonal rainfall rate over peninsular India using conventional rain gauge data is also investigated in conjunction to the Indian Ocean dipole. The homogeneous rain gauge data developed by Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology over peninsular India also exhibit the considerable upward rainfall trend of about 0.4 mm day−1 decade−1 during this period. The associated outgoing longwave radiation shows coherent decrease in the order of 2 W m−2 decade−1 over the rainfall increase region.

Accurate rainfall rate is important for predicting rain attenuation over a satellite link. Raindrops are able to take in, spread out, and change the polarization of satellite signals that pass through the atmosphere of the earth, especially in equatorial regions like Malaysia where heavy rainfall normally occurs. Satellite communications system network operating at Ku-Band will experience rain fade due to absorption and scattering of signal. This paper aims to discuss the range of effects of rain on the transmission of electromagnetic signal and to determine the significance of rainfall rate in the prediction of rain attenuation based on measurements carried out in the northern region of Peninsular Malaysia (Penang). At 0.01% of time, 140 mm/h and 22 dB of rain rate and attenuation were observed, respectively.

The effect of rain on the microwave systems is more critical especially for countries located in tropical and equatorial region that experience high rainfall rate throughout the year. In order to predict a reliable and an accurate rain prediction model, it is required to determine the one-minute integration time of rainfall rate together with direct measurement of rain attenuation. In order to counter the current trend of employing higher frequencies especially in tropical and equatorial regions, there is an urgent need to carry out studies related to the effect of rain in order to get a better rain attenuation prediction model. Therefore, the purpose of this study is to investigate the effect of rain on terrestrial microwave system operating at 26 GHz in Malaysia. The rain intensity with one minute integration time is measured at Universiti Teknologi Malaysia-Skudai (UTM-Skudai) and 99 rain gauges located throughout the Peninsular Malaysia. This study explains the detailed experimental set up and analyses of both rain rate and rain attenuation measurements. The analysis on large-scale study area includes the comparisons between the measured rainfall data and the Drainage and Irrigation Department (DID) rainfall data and also with the Malaysia Meteorological Services (MMS) rainfall data. This study has successfully proposed a new rain rate and rain attenuation prediction model and the obtained results show satisfactory performance and good agreement.

Using models from atmospheric chemistry and physics, this study examined the wet deposition of single uredospores of soybean rust caused by Phakopsora pachyrhizi associated with rainfall and its importance compared with dry deposition. First, a measurement of the terminal velocity of freshly collected P. pachyrhizi uredospores was conducted in Nanning, China. The observed terminal velocities associated with different sizes of the uredospore clumps were fitted by negative exponential models. The average terminal velocity of single uredospores (0.0187 m s−1) determined by the fitted models was used to estimate the dry deposition. The wet deposition of single uredospores associated with different rainfall rates was determined numerically using coupled models, in which raindrop capture efficiency of uredospores was based on Slinn’s semi-empirical model. The results showed that at a rainfall rate of 0.5 mm h−1, wet deposition can remove 50% of the single uredospores in the air within 1 h. If the rainfall rate is 5 mm h−1, 10 min is sufficient to remove 50% of the uredospores. The dry deposition of the single uredospores was estimated with simplified scenarios: i.e., assuming the uredospore cloud was continuously from 1,000 to 2,000 m in height above a field with a uniform concentration. In the first 16 h, almost no uredospores reached the ground, while the wet deposition caused by 2 mm h−1 rainfall within 30 min was even much greater than dry deposition of 24 h duration. The comparisons indicated that the wet deposition of soybean rust uredospores was much more efficient than the dry deposition.

The relationship between surface rainfall rate and sea-surface temperature (SST) over tropical cloudy areas is revisited, and associated air-sea interaction processes are investigated based on hourly grid simulation data over cloudy areas from a two-dimensional coupled ocean-cloud resolving atmosphere model. A cloud-weighted data analysis shows that surface evaporation flux decreases with increasing SST and is one order of magnitude smaller than the residual between moisture convergence and condensation, playing a negligible role in moisture budget. Moisture convergence determines the surface rainfall rate by determining vapor condensation and deposition rates. Ocean mixed-layer thermal budget shows that the atmospheric surface flux is a major process responsible for SST variation while thermal advection and thermal entrainment play a secondary role. The results indicate that atmospheric impacts on the ocean are important whereas oceanic impacts on the atmosphere are not, in the tropical air-sea system, on short timescales. Thus, the relationship between surface rainfall rate and SST over tropical cloudy areas is not physically important. Further estimates indicate that the surface evaporation flux and residual between moisture convergence and condensation could have the same order of magnitude in daily-mean moisture budget.

Groundwater quality prediction has practical significance for the prevention of water pollution. Based on the exogenous variables which are effective on water quality indicators, this paper proposes a new method with new effective parameters based on LSTM RNN for groundwater quality index prediction. The effective parameters on the groundwater quality index include rainfall rate, temperature, and humidity, and groundwater abstraction was collected. Monthly time series data selection was done from five different locations in the Damavand region in Iran from 2009 to 2021. Neural network architecture is tested by "f-score" tested to obtain the best neural network performance. A comparison of the real value and the result of the prediction show that the water quality index prediction has been done sensibly and quite properly in most cases.

Northwestern Pacific (NWP) tropical cyclones (TCs) impose a severe threat to the life and economy of the people living in East Asian countries. The microphysical features, mainly the raindrop size distributions (RSD) of TCs that improve the modeling simulation and rainfall estimation algorithms, are limited to case studies, and an extensive understanding of TCs’ RSD is still scarce over the northwest Pacific. Here, we examine a comprehensive outlook on disparities in microphysical attributes of NWP TCs with radial distance and storm type, using sixteen years of disdrometer, ground-based radar, and reanalysis datasets in north Taiwan. We find that dominant stratiform precipitation in the inner rainbands leads to the occurrence of more bigger drops in the inner rainbands than the inner core and outer rainbands. Moreover, a decrease in mass-weighted mean diameter and rainfall rate with radial distance is associated with a reduction in moisture availability for various circumstances, and this association is deceptive in intense storms. Our findings give an insight into crucial processes governing microphysical inequalities in different regions of NWP TCs, with implications for the ground-based and remote-sensing rainfall estimation algorithms.

The effect of weather conditions on simultaneous local (plant to plant) spread and infection of peas (Pisum sativum) with bacterial blight (Pseudomonas syringae pv. pisi) was investigated by exposing susceptible bait plants for 24 h periods in infected field plots. Following exposure, bait plants were maintained in a glasshouse. Disease symptoms were recorded on 55 out of a total of 105 days on which plants were exposed. Nearly all of these infection events (53) were associated with the occurrence of rain. A series of Generalised Linear Models was fitted to the data to examine the relationships of the mean number of lesions (m) or the proportion of bait plants infected (p) to various weather variables and disease levels in the plots. Rainfall rate and wind run were the most important explanatory variables for the mean number of lesions followed by maximum temperature, rainfall duration, rainfall in the previous week and disease incidence in the surrounding crop. However, rainfall duration and disease incidence were the most important for the proportion of bait plants infected, followed by wind run. A four variable model relating the mean number of lesions to the rainfall rate, wind run, maximum temperature and either rainfall the previous week or disease incidence in the surrounding crop was considered to be the most useful for use in simulation studies.

Mesoscale eddies are widely distributed in the global ocean. They affect the ocean flow field and material transport, and play an important role in the energy transfer between the ocean and the atmosphere. With the development of high-resolution satellite observations, many regional studies are emerging on the coupling effects between mesoscale eddies and the atmosphere. In this study, each identified global eddy (2010–2016, about 13 million eddies) is collocated and normalized with sea surface temperature (SST, 2010–2014), sea surface wind (2010–2016), sea surface air temperature at 2 m (2010–2016), water vapor (2010–2014), evaporation rate (2010–2016), cloud liquid water (2010–2014), and rainfall rate (2010–2014). Four normalization methods are used: non-rotated normalization, and normalizations based on wind direction, flow direction, and eddy egg direction alignment. Furthermore, the eddy explained variations of the air–sea parameters are calculated to obtain their spatial distribution. The eddy explained variation ranges of the seven parameters are 24%–78%, 12%–21%, 3%–35%, 8%–22%, 9%–18%, 0–53%, and 0–58%, respectively. The influence of mesoscale eddies on the air–sea interface can be summarized as a vertical mixing mechanism. This study is novel in that it explores the overlying air–sea distribution from the perspective of glo-bal eddies. The numerical distributions of climatological air–sea parameters are determined by utilizing the multiyear composite overlying air–sea distribution over global eddies using the eddy coordinate system, and the contribution of eddies to this pattern is analyzed. This study is important for the investigation of global climate change.

Chernobyl radioactivity in precipitation was measured at Tsukuba, Japan, as were both surface-air concentrations and particle-size distributions of Chernobyl-released radionuclides. To understand the wet removal processes of the Chernobyl radionuclides, i.e.137Cs,103Ru, and90Sr, wet deposition velocities were calculated. The wet deposition velocities of the Chernobyl radioactivity for individual rainfall events varied largely. The wet deposition velocity is given as the product of washout ratio and rainfall rate. Typically, it was found that the washout ratios of90Sr are systematically larger than those of137Cs. In order to explain this fact, we examined the relationship between the washout ratios and particle sizes of radionuclide-bearing aerosols. A positive correlation between corrected washout ratios and particle size was found with a particle diameter range from 0.35 to 1.2 µm. The result strongly suggests that the factors controlling the wet removal of the Chernobyl radioactivity for individual rainfall events are surface air concentration, particle size, and rainfall rate, rather than precipitation amount, which is in agreement with previous understandings. This suggests that high contamination areas of radioactivity are formed during heavy rainfall events with high rainfall rates in the case of tropospheric injection such as the Chernobyl accident.

Rain constitutes a major limitation to the performance and use of terrestrial and satellite communication systems with operational frequencies greater than 10 GHz. The situation gets further complicated by fast fluctuations in the received signal amplitude due to in homogeneities in atmospheric weather conditions; a phenomenon known as amplitude scintillation. The concurrent evaluation of the two phenomena guarantees a better fade margin determination for the planning of radio communication over any location. This work employs 3 years of in-situ measurement of temperature, humidity, rainfall rate and rainfall amount for the estimation of tropospheric amplitude scintillation and rain specific attenuation over Akure (7.17° N, 5.18° E, 358 m) South West Nigeria. Davis vantage pro weather station at 1-min integration time was used for the measurement and the ITU models for rain specific attenuation (ITU-R P.838-3) and amplitude scintillation (ITU–R 618-13) were employed for the estimation. Time series and statistical analyses of the phenomena show that rain attenuation is the more prominent cause of signal degradation at Ku-band frequencies. Nevertheless, the need to make an extra fade margin allowance of about 0.25 dB due to amplitude scintillation fade subsists to forestall any loss of synchronization on the link. Also, a 3-parameter power-law expression developed for estimating amplitude scintillation fade from rain attenuation performed excellently well, as indicated by average root mean square error (RMSE) and coefficient of determination (R2) values of 0.002151 and 0.8747, respectively.

The 2015 Devrek landslide is one of the largest and most puzzling features on the Devrek-Eregli Highway in Zonguldak Province, in the north-west of Turkey. The landslide which was activated in March, was about 700 m long, 110 m wide with a volume of 1,100,000 m3. In order to assess the landslide hazard in a systematic way, we have employed several techniques such as geotechnical, microstructural and finite elements (FE) modelling. X-ray diffraction and X-ray fluorescence studies show low clay content in the crown section and the amounts of illite and sepiolite do not exceed 25% where there is detrital sand indicating that there is continuous sliding activity. The main sliding body demonstrates implications of liquefaction according to the amount of fine sand and clay obtained by laboratory measurements. The most active clay group prevailing the landslide formation are illite and sepiolite. Furthermore, rounded fine quarts have increased sliding and rolling activity risk according to their physical structures combined with high-seasonal rainfall rate. The FE method was used for both static and dynamic slope stability investigations. Since the landslide region are in a very active tectonic region, earthquake-triggered landsliding strongly correlates with measured peak ground acceleration. Therefore, we have tested the model in numerical dynamic analysis, and the results show a deterioration in landslide stability during seismic loading which puts the study area at risk. All analysis carried out for the landslide assessment shows a continued landslide hazard for the residential areas close to the landslide foot zone.

Current-climate precipitation and temperature extremes have been identified by decision makers in West Africa as among the more impactful weather events causing lasting socioeconomic damage. In this article, we use a plausible future-climate scenario (RCP8.5) for the end of the twenty-first century to explore the relative commonness of such extremes under global warming. The analysis presented considers what a typical day in the future climate will feel like relative to current extrema. Across much of West Africa, we see that the typical future-climate day has maximum and minimum temperatures greater than 99.5% of currently experienced values. This finding exists for most months but is particularly pronounced during the Boreal spring and summer. The typical future precipitation event has a daily rainfall rate greater than 95% of current storms. These findings exist in both a future scenario model run with and without parameterised convection, and for many of the Coupled Model Inter-comparison Project version 5 ensemble members. Additionally, agronomic monsoon onset is projected to occur later and have greater inter-annual variability in the future. Our findings suggest far more extreme conditions in future climate over West Africa. The projected changes in temperature and precipitation could have serious socioeconomic implications, stressing the need for effective mitigation given the potential lack of adaptation pathways available to decision makers.

Free space optical communication (FSO) system has remarkably gained importance of late due to the various advantages associated with it. However, before deployment of FSO communication system, an understanding of the laser beam scintillation due to the atmospheric as well as other weather-induced losses need to be understood. This paper mainly focuses on simulative performance analysis of an FSO system under rain conditions using Optisystems commercial software and rainfall data. Thus, the available models which are the Suriza, Carbonnea, Japan and Samir models were used to determine the rainfall-induced attenuation for a given rainfall rate. Unlike in the previous articles that only used on off keying as the modulation scheme at the transmitter, we have used modified duobinary return to zero (MDRZ) modulation. Further, to improve the MDRZ-based FSO performance in rain conditions, we have used the single-input multiple-output (SIMO) concept with equal gain combining (EGC) at the receiver and again proved that the improvement in BER, Q factor and received optical power suggests that MDRZ-based SIMO FSO communication results in a remarkable improvement.

Based on the tropical rainfall measuring mission (TRMM)-measured rainfall and estimated outgoing longwave radiation (OLR) fields, it is found that 2007–08 Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO07-08) went through blocking, splitting, and merging stages when it passed over the New Guinea Highlands (NGH). The TRMM-estimated OLR fields fail to capture detailed TRMM rainfall field and thus is not suitable to serve as proxy for rainfall, as also found in previous studies. The mechanism of orographic blocking is explained by strong orographic blocking on the incoming, low-Froude number, and moist flow, which belonged to the flow-around regime. This is evidenced by estimating the Froude number by upstream soundings. The strong blocking forced the flow to go around the mountains on NGH, leading to the splitting of flow and MJO precipitating system and the merging at the southeast tip of New Guinea. Orographic, MJO, and cyclone clouds were shown in both observed and model-simulated results. The major differences of the model-simulated and TRMM-measured precipitation are as follows: (a) the model-simulated rainfall area is much larger than that covered by the observed rainfall and (b) even though they both show comparable maximum rainfall rate, the rainfall estimated by TRMM reveals more localized rainfall spots, which is unexpected since the WRF simulation uses a relatively fine resolution (5 km). In summary, during the blocking stage, the mountains have slowed down the MJO propagation and increased the rainfall amount upstream of the local mountains, while during the splitting and merging stages, the mountains have made significant impacts on the MJO rainfall distribution.

New technologies for the classification of convective cloud lifecycles and the prediction of their movements are needed to detect severe convective weather and to support objective cloud guidance. Satellites enable earlier detection of severe weather over larger coverage areas than ground-based observations or radar. The use of satellite observations for nowcasting is thus likely. In this study, convective initiation (CI) data are paired with a modified rapid-development thunderstorm (RDT) algorithm for the analysis of new data from the Geostationary Korea Multi-Purpose Satellite-2A (GEO-KOMPSAT-2A, GK2A). The RDT algorithm is further modified to accommodate the additional GK2A satellite channels, and new satellite data are used to continuously analyze thunderstorms associated with severe weather in Korea. The logistic regression (LR) machine learning approach is used to optimize the criteria of interest fields and weighting coefficients of the RDT algorithm for convective detection. In addition, auxiliary data (cloud type, convective rainfall rate, and cloud top temperature/height) calculated from RDT sub-module is replaced with GK2A derived products. The fully modified RDT algorithm (K-RDT) is quantitatively verified using lightning data from summer convection cases. The probability of detection (POD) for convective clouds is increased by 30–40%, and the threat score (TS) for average lightning activity is improved by 10–30%. The channel properties of Japan Himawari-8 satellite are similar to those of the GK2A satellite. Due to the lack of GK2A satellite data during the development period, CI data from the Himawari-8 satellite are used as proxies.

Type of precipitating near-oceanic clouds are found out and tracked by inferring it from the near-surface empirical relationships of rainfall rate and radar reflectivity (Z–R), which are established using a micro-rain radar (MRR) and a Joss–Waldvogel disdrometer at a tropical coastal station Thiruvananthapuram (8.5°N, 76.9°E), an Asian monsoon near-oceanic site, almost at the tip of Indian peninsula. It is also found out from the vertical variation of Z–R relation that coalescence is prevalent than breakup, as a result of the collision of rain drops, along with evaporation of smaller drops existed as the rain comes down. The DSD/radar reflectivity/rainfall data from the MRR, disdrometer and manual rain gauge were inter-compared, and found to have good agreement. The MRR radar bright band signature, which is an indication of melting height, is validated using the Wyoming radiosonde data. The whole rain events from March to September 2007 were separated in to bright band (BB) and non-bright band (NBB) cases. The variation of Z with R for all the heights (up to 6000 m with 200 m intervals) is modeled with a function Z = ARb corresponding to both BB and NBB cases, separately for pre-monsoon and southwest monsoon seasons. And, it is realised that there are two distinct fits with different slopes and intercepts existing for Z–R relations corresponding to BB and NBB cases throughout aloft during both the seasons. It is found out that the presence of radar BB or NBB signatures, with corresponding distinct Z–R relations even just at near-surface, which can be used as a proxy for discerning the clouds into stratiform or convective, respectively.

Cloud is essential in the atmosphere, condensing water vapor and generating strong convective or large-scale persistent precipitation. In this work, the relationships between cloud vertical macro- or microphysical properties, radiative heating rate, and precipitation for convective and stratiform clouds in boreal summer over the Tibetan Plateau (TP) are analyzed and compared with its neighboring land and tropical oceans based on CloudSat/CALIPSO satellite measurements and TRMM precipitation data. The precipitation intensity caused by convective clouds is twofold stronger than that by stratiform clouds. The vertical macrophysics of both cloud types show similar features over the TP, with the region weakening the precipitation intensity and compressing the cloud vertical expansion and variation in cloud top height, but having an uplift effect on the average cloud top height. The vertical microphysics of both cloud types under conditions of no rain over the TP are characterized by lower-level ice water, ice particles with a relatively larger range of sizes, and a relatively lower occurrence of denser ice particles. The features are similar to other regions when precipitation enhances, but convective clouds gather denser and larger ice particles than stratiform clouds over the TP. The atmospheric shortwave (longwave) heating (cooling) rate strengthens with increased precipitation for both cloud types. The longwave cooling layer is thicker when the rainfall rate is less than 100 mm d−1, but the net heating layer is typically compressed for the profiles of both cloud types over the TP. This study provides insights into the associations between clouds and precipitation, and an observational basis for improving the simulation of convective and stratiform clouds over the TP in climate models.

West Africa is characterised by diverse hydro-climatic divisions ranging from the humid equatorial climate to the semi-arid and arid climates that manifest in high space–time variability in rainfall. In this study, drought and floods in six delineated domains (Northern Sahel, Southern Sahel, Sudanian, Western Guinea Coast, Central Guinea Coast and Eastern Guinea Coast) of West Africa were illustrated using the Standardized Precipitation Index (SPI 3 months and 9 months) calculated from global CPC Merged Analysis of precipitation (CMAP 2.5° by 2.5° resolution) data from 1980 to 2017. The trend analysis shows that none of the domains exhibits a significant trend in the computed SPI. However, there is a significant trend in the annual rainfall rate for all the domains except the Eastern Guinea Coast. Again, there is a likelihood of an increasing trend of SPI-3 but a decreasing trend for the SPI-9. The drier areas have significant increasing rainfall trend while the highly humid regions show significant negative trend except for the Eastern Guinea Coast that shows a non-significant very weak positive trend. The most exposed area to extreme drought conditions occurs over the northern Sahel domain at SPI-3 though the frequency of occurrence is very low. The Western Guinea coast experiences the highest number of dry events of about 32% of the time followed by the Northern Sahel domain. Under SPI-9, the following domains: Eastern Guinea coast, Sudanian, Northern Sahel and Western Guinea coast are prone to flooding incidence as they had 40%, 37%, 29% and 26% of wet events, respectively. The study recommends apt and timely climate service delivery, adoption of ecosystem-based adaptation strategies that promote apt and sustainable water management practices in the region.

Sodic and saline soils are found mainly in regions with weak precipitations such as areas where aridity predominates. The low rainfall rate causes salt accumulation at high level on the soil surfaces affecting hence both the environment and foundations of constructions and buildings. This study is aimed to investigate the performance and the potential of electrochemical treatment for decontamination of sodic-saline soil. For this purpose, soil specimens were collected from the region of Mostaganem located in the north-western of Algeria, which is classified as semi-arid zone. In this region, many large areas are greatly affected by salinity phenomenon during recent years. Seven indices including electric current, electro-osmotic flow, pH, electrical conductivity (EC), exchangeable sodium adsorption ratio (ESP), sodium adsorption ratio (SAR), and salt removal efficiency including sodium, potassium, and calcium were explored. Experimental tests were conducted in laboratory-designed cell using an electric potential difference of 15, 25, 35, and 45 V, respectively, for a total period of 7 days. Salts such as sodium (Na+), potassium (K+), and calcium (Ca2+) migrated and moved toward the catholyte chamber and accumulated there, by electro-migration and electro-osmotic mechanisms. Among these ionic compounds, the highest decontamination efficiency was achieved for Na+ and K+ ions estimated of 88% and 85%, respectively. However, for Ca2+ ions, the extraction rate was moderate than monovalent ions with a percentage of 59%. Our results demonstrated that the electrochemical treatment may be a simple, low-cost, and efficient alternative to decontaminate and remediate saline soils.

To date, the intraseasonal variation of raindrop size distribution (DSD) in response to the Madden–Julian Oscillation (MJO) has been examined only over the Indonesian Maritime Continent, particularly in Sumatra. This paper presents the intraseasonal variation of DSD over the Indian Ocean during the Cooperative Indian Ocean experiment on Intraseasonal Variability in the Year 2011 (CINDY 2011) field campaign. The DSDs determined using a Joss–Waldvogel disdrometer, which was installed on the roof of the anti-rolling system of the R/V Mirai during stationary observation (25 September to 30 November 2011) at (8°S, 80.5°E), were analyzed. The vertical structure of precipitation was revealed by Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission Precipitation Radar (version 7) data. While the general features of vertical structures of precipitation observed during the CINDY and Sumatra observation are similar, the intraseasonal variation of the DSD in response to the MJO at each location is slightly different. The DSDs during the active phase of the MJO are slightly broader than those during the inactive phase, which is indicated by a larger mass-weighted mean diameter value. Furthermore, the radar reflectivity during the active MJO phase is greater than that during the inactive phase at the same rainfall rate. The microphysical processes that generate large-sized drops over the ocean appear to be more dominant during the active MJO phase, in contrast to the observations made on land (Sumatra). This finding is consistent with the characteristics of radar reflectivity below the freezing level, storm height, bright band height, cloud effective radius, and aerosol optical depth.

In the present study, we have used TRMM multi-satellite precipitation analysis (TMPA) 3B42 and global precipitation mission (GPM): IMERG “precipitation Cal” products to identify and quantify the asymmetry and distribution of rainfall in tropical cyclones formed over Bay of Bengal (BoB). For the period 2010–2013, TMPA products have been made use of and for the period 2014–2017, GPM–IMERG products are used to study the aforementioned features. Overall, 17 cyclones covering 75 events/days ranging from depression to very severe cyclonic stage of the system have been analysed. Our analysis revealed some interesting features on asymmetry, direction of maximum rain-receiving zones, relation of T-number with maximum and total rainfall in rain-receiving areas. The study reveals the direction of rainfall zone is mostly towards west and southwest directions of the storm centre in BoB. This point gains importance in the context of earlier reports, where it is mentioned that the direction of maximum rainfall is in east. The study also infers that the maximum rainfall and total rainfall need not be dependent on the intensity (indicated by T-number). We also attempted to classify the rain-receiving zones, based on both the rainfall-rate window and area covered in each window of rainfall, and a criterion has been proposed. The distribution of rainfall is classified, as sharply falling, slowly falling and nearly constant.

The relationship between the radar reflectivity factor (Z) and the rainfall rate (R) is recalculated based on radar observations from 10 Doppler radars and hourly rainfall measurements at 6529 automatic weather stations over the Yangtze–Huaihe River basin. The data were collected by the National 973 Project from June to July 2013 for severe convective weather events. The Z–R relationship is combined with an empirical qr–R relationship to obtain a new Z–qr relationship, which is then used to correct the observational operator for radar reflectivity in the three-dimensional variational (3DVar) data assimilation system of the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to improve the analysis and prediction of severe convective weather over the Yangtze–Huaihe River basin. The performance of the corrected reflectivity operator used in the WRF 3DVar data assimilation system is tested with a heavy rain event that occurred over Jiangsu and Anhui provinces and the surrounding regions on 23 June 2013. It is noted that the observations for this event are not included in the calculation of the Z–R relationship. Three experiments are conducted with the WRF model and its 3DVar system, including a control run without the assimilation of reflectivity data and two assimilation experiments with the original and corrected reflectivity operators. The experimental results show that the assimilation of radar reflectivity data has a positive impact on the rainfall forecast within a few hours with either the original or corrected reflectivity operators, but the corrected reflectivity operator achieves a better performance on the rainfall forecast than the original operator. The corrected reflectivity operator extends the effective time of radar data assimilation for the prediction of strong reflectivity. The physical variables analyzed with the corrected reflectivity operator present more reasonable mesoscale structures than those obtained with the original reflectivity operator. This suggests that the new statistical Z–R relationship is more suitable for predicting severe convective weather over the Yangtze–Huaihe River basin than the Z–R relationships currently in use.

The aim of this study is to examine the skill of climate forecast system version 2 (CFSv2) in simulating the synoptic features of Bay of Bengal (BOB) branch of summer monsoon (SM) during the onset over Gangetic West Bengal (GWB), India. Precise prediction of the onset time and the synoptic features associated with the onset is a major challenge in SM study. Better understanding of the synoptic and intra-seasonal variability during the propagation along with the mean simulation of monsoon features is crucial, especially for the operational models. The earlier studies focused mainly on the mean simulation of SM during June–September (JJAS) period. However, the main objective of the present study is to improve the understanding of CFSv2 model biases in simulating the synoptic features during the propagation of BOB branch of SM system till the onset over GWB. The skill of the coupled model is estimated for the years 2011 to 2015 with tropospheric temperature (TT), sea surface temperature (SST), mean sea level pressure (MSLP), winds at 850 and 500 hPa pressure levels, and rainfall rate (RR). The result shows that the observed characteristics are simulated, reasonably well, by CFSv2 model with quite high reliability unlike other coupled models. The CFSv2 has been able to simulate the position/variation during the onset; however, the model has not been able to estimate the intensity in some occasions. The gradients of pressure and SST have been slightly overestimated by the model. The model has not been able to simulate the winds at 850 and 500 hPa pressure levels in some occasions. The CFSv2 model in simulating the features during propagation of BOB branch of SM system shows disparity from observation in some occasions during 2011 to 2015. The result also reveals that the model biases remain unaltered during El Nino episode of 2011.

The regional features of Bay of Bengal (BOB) branch of summer monsoon (SM) are examined to identify the causes of delayed onset over Gangetic West Bengal (GWB) in the years having normal onset over Kerala coast. The normal onset over both GWB and Kerala is designated as Normal–Normal (NN) years, while delayed onset over GWB and normal onset over Kerala is termed Normal–Delayed (ND) years. The temperature gradient (TTg), winds at 850 and 150 hPa pressure levels, sea-surface temperature (SST), outgoing long wave radiation (OLR), low-level moisture convergence, instability, and rainfall rate (RR) are analyzed in this study using National Centers for Environmental Prediction and National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration reanalysis dataset during the period from 1981 to 2015. The result shows that TTg over BOB plays a significant role in controlling the movement of BOB branch of SM. Warm SST is observed to prevail over north BOB during NN years. The divergence at 150 hPa and convergence at 850 hPa pressure levels are found to influence the propagation of BOB branch of SM during both NN and ND years. The winds at 850 hPa level converge over BOB and GWB during NN years, whereas winds converge more over eastern BOB and Indo-Chinese peninsula during ND years. Result depicts abundance of low-level (850–1000 hPa) moisture over eastern BOB and Indo-Chinese peninsula during ND years, whereas moisture is observed to converge over north and north-eastern BOB during NN years. The RR is observed to be slightly higher during NN than ND years. However, it may not be concluded from the analysis that delayed onset over GWB will be responsible for less RR over the study region.

Computer vision systems are increasingly present on roadways, both on the roadside and on board vehicles. Image features are an essential building block for computer vision algorithms in a road environment. Eight of the most representative image features in a road environment are selected on the basis of a literature review, and their robustness in rainy conditions is evaluated. In order to do this, a new evaluation method is proposed, which is then applied to a new weather-image database. This database contains rain typical of latitudes with a temperate climate ( $$0{-}30\, \mathrm{mm}\,\mathrm{h}^{-1} $$ ), various camera settings and images with natural rain and images with digitally simulated rain. Image features based on pixel intensity and those that use vertical edges are sensitive to rainy conditions. Conversely, the Harris feature and features that combine different edge orientations remain robust for rainfall rates of $$0{-}30\, \mathrm{mm}\,\mathrm{h}^{-1} $$ . The robustness of image features in rainy conditions decreases as the rainfall rate increases. Finally, the image features most sensitive to rain have potential for use in a camera-based rain classification application.

India Meteorological department (IMD) used INSAT-3D Metrological Satellite Imager data to drive two type rainfall estimation products viz-Hydro Estimate (HE) and INSAT Multi-Spectral Rainfall Algorithm (IMSRA) on half hourly rainfall rate and daily accumulated rainfall in millimeter (mm). Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrieval for GPM (IMERG) product is being derived by NASA and JAXA by using Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) satellites data. IMSRA and GPM (IMERG) are gridded data at 10 km spatial resolution and HE is available at pixel level (4 km at Nadir). IMD provides gridded rainfall data at 0.25° × 0.25° resolution which is based on wide coverage of 6955 actual observation. In present study, validation of INSAT-3D based Hydro Estimator (HE), INSAT Multi-Spectral Rainfall Algorithm (IMSRA) and Integrated Multi-Satellite Retrieval for GPM (IMERG) of Global Precipitation Mission (GPM) satellites are carried out with IMD gridded data set for heavy rainfall event during winter monsoon, over peninsular India (November–December 2015). In validation, Nash–Sutcliffe efficiencies (NSE), RMSE, Correlation, Skilled scores are calculated at grid level for heavy and very heavy rain categories and the values of NSE of HE (− 32.36, − 3.12), GPM (− 68.67, − 2.39) and IMSRA (− 0.02, 0.28) on 16th November 2015 and HE (− 13.65, − 1.69), GPM (− 43.79, − 2.94) and IMSRA (− 1.08, − 1.60) on 2nd Dec 2015, for heavy and very heavy rainfall. On both days, HE is showing better rainfall estimate compare to GPM for Heavy rainfall and GPM showing better estimation for very heavy rainfall events. In all the cases IMSRA is underestimating, if daily rain fall exceeded 75 mm.

The characteristics and dynamics associated with the distribution, intensity, and triggering factors of local severe precipitation in Zhejiang Province induced by Super Typhoon Soudelor (2015) were investigated using mesoscale surface observations, radar reflectivity, satellite nephograms, and the final (FNL) analyses of the Global Forecasting System (GFS) of the National Center for Environmental Prediction (NCEP). The rainfall processes during Soudelor’s landfall and translation over East China could be separated into four stages based on rainfall characteristics such as distribution, intensity, and corresponding dynamics. The relatively less precipitation in the first stage resulted from interaction between the easterly wind to the north flank of this tropical cyclone (TC) and the coastal topography along the southeast of Zhejiang Province, China. With landfall of the TC in East China during the second stage, precipitation maxima occurred because of interaction between the TC’s principal rainbands and the local topography from northeastern Fujian Province to southwestern Zhejiang Province. The distribution of precipitation presented significant asymmetric features in the third stage with maximal rainfall bands in the northeast quadrant of the TC when Soudelor’s track turned from westward to northward as the TC decayed rapidly. Finally, during the northward to northeastward translation of the TC in the fourth stage, the interaction between a mid-latitude weather system and the northern part of the TC resulted in transfer of the maximum rainfall from the north of Zhejiang Province to the north of Jiangsu Province, which represented the end of rainfall in Zhejiang Province. Further quantitative calculations of the rainfall rate induced by the interaction between local topography and TC circulation (defined as “orographic effects”) in the context of a one-dimensional simplified model showed that orographic effects were the primary factor determining the intensity of precipitation in this case, and accounted for over 50% of the total precipitation. The asymmetric distribution of the TC’s rainbands was closely related to the asymmetric distribution of moisture resulted from changes of the TC’s structure, and led to asymmetric distribution of local intense precipitation induced by Soudelor. Based on analysis of this TC, it could be concluded that local severe rainfall in the coastal regions of East China is closely related to changes of TC structure and intensity, as well as the outer rainbands. In addition, precipitation intensity and duration will increase correspondingly because of the complex interactions between the TC and local topography, and the particular TC track along large-scale steering flow. The results of this study may be useful for the understanding, prediction, and warning of disasters induced by local extreme rainfall caused by TCs, especially for facilitating forecasting and warning of flooding and mudslides associated with torrential rain caused by interactions between landfalling TCs and coastal topography.

It is recognized that rain attenuation is the primary factor in the degradation of Earth-satellite communication at the Ka band frequency. The beacon signal of the ROCSAT-1 is set at 19.5 GHz for downlink and 28.5 GHz for uplink. ROCSAT-1 is the low earth orbit (LEO) satellite with a circular orbit at the altitude of 600 km and 35° inclination angle and scheduled to be launched at the beginning of 1999. Given the extremely high frequency of the beacon, impairment of ROCSAT-1 communications due to rain attenuation should be seriously considered. In this paper, the ground-based instruments for the Ka band propagation experiments of ROCSAT-1, including Chung-Li VHF radar, 19.5 GHz radiometer, optical rain gauge, automatic weather station, and disdrometer, are introduced. The spatial distribution of the long-term statistics of rainfall rate is analyzed in this paper on the basis of 8 years (1988-1995) rainfall rate data at one-minute time resolution, recorded by more than 70 tipping bucket rain gauges distributed over Taiwan island. It shows a pronounced latitudinal variation in the percentage of time that the rainfall rate exceeds a specified level, indicating that more severe rain attenuation will be encountered in the southern part than that in the northern part of Taiwan. In addition, the sky noise temperature at the frequency of 19.5 GHz is measured by using a radiometer, both in the conditions of clear-air and precipitation. The observed sky noise temperature in the case of clear-air at the elevation angles of 90°, 60°, 30°, and 15° are respectively 50K, 80K, 100K, and 130K, corresponding to the attenuations of 0.7dB, 0.78dB, 1.2dB, and 2.7dB. Data analysis indicates that the observed clear-air sky noise temperature increasing exponentially with the decrease of the zenith angle is in perfect agreement with our theoretical prediction. The sky noise temperature in the case of precipitation is also investigated. A comparison between observed precipitation sky noise temperature and surface rainfall rate shows that a salient time shift in the two is seen, implying that great caution should be taken in establishing an empirical relationship between precipitation sky noise temperature and surface rainfall rate.

Land-falling tropical cyclones along the Queensland coastline can result in serious and widespread damage. However, the effects of climate change on cyclone characteristics such as intensity, trajectory, rainfall, and especially translation speed and size are not well-understood. This study explores the relative change in the characteristics of three case studies by comparing the simulated tropical cyclones under current climate conditions with simulations of the same systems under future climate conditions. Simulations are performed with the Weather Research and Forecasting Model and environmental conditions for the future climate are obtained from the Community Earth System Model using a pseudo global warming technique. Results demonstrate a consistent response of increasing intensity through reduced central pressure (by up to 11 hPa), increased wind speeds (by 5–10% on average), and increased rainfall (by up to 27% for average hourly rainfall rates). The responses of other characteristics were variable and governed by either the location and trajectory of the current climate cyclone or the change in the steering flow. The cyclone that traveled furthest poleward encountered a larger climate perturbation, resulting in a larger proportional increase in size, rainfall rate, and wind speeds. The projected monthly average change in the 500 mb winds with climate change governed the alteration in the both the trajectory and translation speed for each case. The simulated changes have serious implications for damage to coastal settlements, infrastructure, and ecosystems through increased wind speeds, storm surge, rainfall, and potentially increased size of some systems.

Rainfall-triggered landslides are the result of the complex water-related processes occurring in the atmosphere-soil-vegetation system. In this paper, we present a methodology to assess long-term slope stability from rainfall, soil, and vegetation parameters. Our approach couples the stochastic ecohydrological model developed by Rodriguez-Iturbe et al. (Proc R Soc A: Math Phys Eng Sci 455(1990): 3789–3805, 1999) and Laio et al. (Adv Water Resour 24(7):707–723, 2001b) and the unsaturated flow equation. In this way, the stochastic nature of the rainfall process propagates through the system, finally reaching the FS. Then, synthetic time series generated by numerical modeling are used to infer the FS statistical properties. The study of a hypothetical case study showed that the long-term slope stability is highly sensitive to the ratio of the amount of water that can be evapotranspirated and the amount of water the soil can infiltrate and less sensitive to the ratio of the saturated hydraulic coefficient and the long-term rainfall rate. A scaling analysis evidenced the existence of statistically significant (R2 ≈ 1) exponential relationships between ecohydrological dimensionless numbers and slope failure probability. The method presented here is a useful tool for landscape planning.

In this study, the spatial and temporal impacts of the Ataturk Dam on agro-meteorological aspects of the Southeastern Anatolia region have been investigated. Change detection and environmental impacts due to water-reserve changes in Ataturk Dam Lake have been determined and evaluated using multi-temporal Landsat satellite imageries and meteorological datasets within a period of 1984-2011. These time series have been evaluated for three time periods. Dam construction period constitutes the first part of the study. Land cover/use changes especially on agricultural fields under the Ataturk Dam Lake and its vicinity have been identified between the periods of 1984-1992. The second period comprises the 10-year period after the completion of filling up the reservoir in 1992. At this period, Landsat and meteorological time-series analyses are examined to assess the impact of the Ataturk Dam Lake on selected irrigated agricultural areas. For the last 9-year period from 2002 to 2011, the relationships between seasonal water-reserve changes and irrigated plains under changing climatic factors primarily driving vegetation activity (monthly, seasonal, and annual fluctuations of rainfall rate, air temperature, humidity) on the watershed have been investigated using a 30-year meteorological time series. The results showed that approximately 368 km(2) of agricultural fields have been affected because of inundation due to the Ataturk Dam Lake. However, irrigated agricultural fields have been increased by 56.3% of the total area (1552 of 2756 km(2)) on Harran Plain within the period of 1984-2011.