LINKAGE OF SCALING AND THERMODYNAMIC PARAMETERS OF RAINFALL - RESULTSFROM MIDLATITUDE MESOSCALE CONVECTIVE SYSTEMS

In this paper we explore the possibility of establishing predictive re lationships between statistical characteristics of rainfall at the mes oscale (approximately 10(2) to 10(4) km(2)) and representative meteoro logical parameters of the storm environment. To increase the usefulnes s of these relationships and, in particular, to explore their use in s ubgrid-scale rainfall parameterization, special attention is given to statistical characteristics of rainfall that are scale invariant, i.e. , are constant at least within a significant range of scales. The main contributions of this paper are the following: (1) we establish the p resence of statistical (simple) scaling in ''standardized rainfall flu ctuations'' (derived from rainfall intensities via an orthogonal wavel et transform and normalization by local means) and (2) we establish em pirical connections between statistical and physical storm characteris tics by quantifying relations between the scaling parameters and kinem atic and thermodynamic indices of the prestorm environment. The data u sed for this analysis are rainfall events and corresponding soundings observed during the PRE-STORM experiment (May and June 1985) over Okla homa and Kansas. The developed relationships are applicable to midlati tude mesoscale convective systems, which are the major rainfall produc ers over most of the Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Continental International Project (GCIP) region, and are envisioned to play a key role in disaggregating rainfall (predicted by mesoscale nu merical models) to subgrid scales for runoff prediction and other hydr ologic applications.