Orographic Precipitation in the Tropics: the Dominica Experiment
OROGRAPHIC PRECIPITATION IN THE TROPICS The Dominica Experiment BY RONALD B. SMITH, JUSTIN R. MINDER, ALISON D. NUGENT, TRUDE STORELVMO, DANIEL J. KIRSHBAUM, ROBERT WARREN, NEIL LAREAU, PHILIppE PALANY, ARLINGTON JAMES, AND JEffREY FRENCH The surprising sensitivity of the wind field, aerosol concentration, cloud physics, and precipi- tation over Dominica to trade-wind speed arises from a change from thermally to mechani- cally triggered convection and from nonplunging to plunging airflow. rographic precipitation influences water frontal, cold pool, dryline). Until now, orographic pre- resources, flooding and landslides, regional cipitation has been widely studied only in midlatitudes O climates, and global water budgets. Further- with field projects such as the Sierra Cooperative Pilot more, the study of mountain-induced lifting and Project (SCPP), the Alpine Experiment (ALPEX), precipitation serves as a prototype for the study of Southern ALPEX (Wratt et al. 1996), the Improvement other types of airmass lifting in the atmosphere (e.g., of Microphysical Parameterization through Observa- tional Verification Experiment (IMPROVE; Stoelinga AFFILIATIONS: SMITH, MINDER, NUGENT, AND STORELVMO— et al. 2003), the Mesoscale Alpine Programme (MAP; Department of Geology and Geophysics, Yale University, New Bougeault et al. 2001; Rotunno and Houze 2007), Haven, Connecticut; KIRSHBAUM—Department of Atmospheric Cumulus Photogrammetric, In situ and Doppler and Oceanic Sciences, McGill University, Montreal, Quebec, Observations (CuPIDO; Geerts et al. 2008), and Canada; WARREN—Department of Meteorology, University of others. Summaries can be found in Smith (1979, 2006), Reading, Reading, United Kingdom; LAREAU—Department of Roe (2005), and Houze (2012). Mountain effects in the Atmospheric Sciences, University of Utah, Salt Lake City, Utah; subtropics have been studied in Taiwan and Hawaii PALANY—Météo-France, Martinique; JAMES—Forestry Division, Dominica; FRENCH—Department of Atmospheric Science, (e.g., Kuo and Chen 1990; Yang and Chen 2008).
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