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Insight into global climatology of melting layer: latitudinal dependence and orographic relief

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Abstract

Melting layer usually exists in precipitation where ice particles gradually melt into liquid particles. Utilizing the detection from the Dual-frequency Precipitation Radar onboard Global Precipitation Measurement Mission Core Observatory during 2018-2022, this paper investigates the quasi-global climatological features of Melting layer over 65°S ~65°N and analyzes the relationships with elevation in the golden case involving the section along 32.5°N across China. The distribution of Melting layer is latitude-dependent: Melting layer is higher in 30°S~30°N and decrease toward the mid-and high-latitude, which are generally lower in 30°S~65°S throughout the year. The height and thickness of Melting layer change more dramatically in mid-and high latitudes than in low latitudes for diurnal variations. The higher elevation terrain has the lower Melting layer top height than other terrains, yet the geometric thickness of Melting layer is also thinner. A golden case is selected to represent the analysis of Melting layer play role in rainfall. When the Melting layer grow thinner with steeply rising elevation due to the thermal change and orographic uplift, there is weak rain with a greater number of smaller raindrops in the golden case. However, Melting layer can get widen and raindrops can get sufficient growth as the elevation declines.

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No datasets were generated or analysed during the current study.

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Acknowledgements

We are grateful to the National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) for providing the GPM DPR data.

The V07A GPM 2ADPR products used in this paper are openly available at the NASA Goddard Space Flight Center's Precipitation Processing System (PPS) team (https://storm.pps.eosdis.nasa.gov/storm/, which could be accessed until March 12, 2024).

This paper is supported by no Funding and has no Competing interests.

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Author notes

  1. Xiong Hu and Junqi Qiao contributed equally to this work and should be considered as co-first authors.

Authors and Affiliations

  1. College of Meteorology and Oceanography, National University of Defense Technology, Changsha, China

    Xiong Hu, Weihua Ai, Junqi Qiao & Wei Yan

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  1. Xiong Hu
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  2. Weihua Ai
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Contributions

Conceptualization: Xiong Hu, Junqi Qiao, Data curation: Weihua Ai, Junqi Qiao, Formal analysis: Xiong Hu, Junqi Qiao, Investigation: Xiong Hu, Junqi Qiao, Methodology: Xiong Hu, Junqi Qiao, Project Administration: Weihua Ai, Supervision: Weihua Ai, Wei Yan, Validation: Xiong Hu, Visualization: Xiong Hu, Writing – original draft: Xiong Hu, Writing – review & editing: Xiong Hu, Weihua Ai

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Correspondence to Weihua Ai.

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Keypoints

• ML height is higher in low-latitude and decreases toward the mid-and high-latitude, which are generally lower in southern high-latitude.

• The diurnal variations of ML height and geometric thickness vary more significantly in mid-and high-latitude than that in low-latitude.

• ML height is lower in higher elevations than in other terrains, yet the geometric thickness of the melting layer is also thinner.

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Hu, X., Ai, W., Qiao, J. et al. Insight into global climatology of melting layer: latitudinal dependence and orographic relief. Theor Appl Climatol (2024). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00704-024-04926-6

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