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Cold front (produces cumulus cloud) Cold front (produces stratus cloud)
Orographic lifting
Orographic uplift occurs when air is forced to rise because of the physical
presence of elevated land.
Convective lifting
Convective precipitation occurs when the air near the ground is heated by the
earth’s warm surface. This warm air rises, cools and creates precipitation.
Hot earth
surface
Condensation
• Condensation is the change of water vapor into
a liquid. For condensation to occur, the air must
be at or near saturation in the presence of
condensation nuclei.
• Condensation nuclei are small particles or
aerosol upon which water vapor attaches to
initiate condensation. Dust particulates, sea salt,
sulfur and nitrogen oxide aerosols serve as
common condensation nuclei.
• Size of aerosols range from 10-3 to 10 mm.
Precipitation formation
• Lifting cools air masses
so moisture condenses
• Condensation nuclei
– Aerosols
– water molecules
attach
• Rising & growing
– 0.5 cm/s sufficient to
carry 10 mm droplet
– Critical size (~0.1
mm)
– Gravity overcomes
and drop falls
Forces acting on rain drop
• Three forces acting on D
rain drop
– Gravity force due to Fb
Fd Fd
weight
Fg
– Buoyancy force due to
displacement of air
Volume D3
– Drag force due to friction 6
V2 2 V
2
Fd Cd a A Cd a D
2 4 2
Terminal Velocity
• Terminal velocity: velocity at which the forces acting on the raindrop
are in equilibrium.
• If released from rest, the raindrop will accelerate until it reaches its
terminal velocity
Fvert 0 FB FD W
D
2V
2
a g D Cd a D
3
w g D3
6 4 2 6
Fb
FD FB W
4 gD w Fd Fd
2 Vt2 Vt 1
Cd a D
4 2
a g D3 w g D3
6 6
3Cd a Fg
• Influenced by
– Atmospheric circulation and local factors
• Higher near coastlines
• Seasonal variation – annual oscillations in some
places
• Variables in mountainous areas
• Increases in plains areas
• More uniform in Eastern US than in West
Rainfall patterns in the US
Global precipitation pattern
Spatial Representation
• Isohyet – contour of constant rainfall
• Isohyetal maps are prepared by
interpolating rainfall data at gaged points.
0.7
Incremental Rainfall (in per 5 min)
0.6
0.5
0.4
0.3
0.2
0.1
0
5 10 15 20 25 30 35 40 45 50 55 60 65 70 75 80 85 90 95 100 105 110 115 120 125 130 135 140 145 150
Time (min)
Rainfall Hyetograph
Cumulative Rainfall
10
7
Cumulative Rainfall (in.)
5
3.07 in
4 8.2 in
3 30 min
5.56 in
2
1 1 hr
2 hr
0
0 30 60 90 120 150
Time (min.)
P3
10 20 30
P 20 mm
3
5 5 18 15 12 25 12 35
P 21.6 mm
47
Inverse distance weighting
• Prediction at a point is more
influenced by nearby
measurements than that by distant P1=10
measurements
• The prediction at an ungaged point
is inversely proportional to the P2= 20 d1=25
distance to the measurement
d2=15 P3=30
points
• Steps d3=10
– Compute distance (di) from p
ungaged point to all measurement
points.
d12 x1 x2 2 y1 y2 2
N
P
– Compute the precipitation at the i2
d
10
20 30
ungaged point using the following Pˆ i 1 i Pˆ 25 2 152 10 2 25.24 mm
N
1 1 1 1
formula 2 2
2
2
i 1 di 25 15 10
Rainfall interpolation in GIS
• Data are generally
available as points with
precipitation stored in
attribute table.
Rainfall maps in GIS