Influences of Summer Precipitation Occurrence Time on Raindrop Spectrum Characteristics over the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau
Round 1
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsMy comments in the attached file
Comments for author File: 
Comments.pdf
Minor editing of English language requiered
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your comments on this paper. We have answered your questions in detail and revised the corresponding parts in the paper. Our responses to your questions are as follows:
Comments to the Author
Influences of summer precipitation occurrence time on raindrop spectrum characteristics over the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau.
Yuxin Zhang,Huibang Han,Boyue Zhang&Yonghui Hou
Using three raindrop stectrometers deployed in different sites in the Tibetan Plateau,the authors analyze the raindrop spectrum characteristics during two types of summer precipitation:daytime (DP)and nighttime(NP).The authors conclude that the sample size of the precipitation at the rain rate of 1.0-5.0 mm h-1 is higher in the nighttime part of the NP or NP-n,and the precipitation at this rain rate contributes the most to the total precipitation. Additionally,for the same rate,the precipitation particles in the NP-n are larger.
The manuscript is well organized,the figures and tables are sufficient but some results require more support in the discussion section to provide better support for the conclusions. For this reason, I recommend some changes and corrections to the authors to make this work more competitive.
L88-L89,and L124-L125.To be clearly stated,please indicate hours. Do the times of occurrence overlap?
If so,how does the overlapping of occurrence times affect the results?
Please elaborate/explain this further and justify the classification methodology
Response: Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion. The sample observation time is given in Table 1, which is mentioned in L133-134. The observed sample time of the three sites did not coincide. It is very enlightening for us to ask whether the coincidence of observation time affects the results.On the one hand, if the observation time coincides, the short-time meteorological weather will affect the raindrop spectrum results; on the other hand, if the times are not consistent, there is reason to doubt the representativeness of the chosen samples. As another reviewer commented, the best way to solve the problem of data representativeness is to obtain 5 to 10 years of raindrop spectrum data and discuss this issue in terms of climate states. Since 2014, we have continued to observe raindrop spectra at multiple observation points on the Tibetan Plateau. The Tibetan Plateau is the most sparsely populated region in the world, and the harsh climate environment has brought many difficulties to our observation, so it is difficult to obtain long-term data. Although the sample time selected in our study did not coincide, the research results, especially Figures 8, 9 and 11, all showed consistent raindrop spectral characteristics in the northeastern part of the Tibetan Plateau, so we believe that the selection of time has little impact on the results.
In discussing raindrop spectra, we note that most of the research focuses on the difference between convective and stratospheric precipitation. Although they only made a crude distinction and neglected to account for the impact of convective precipitation, several studies have also examined the raindrop spectrum of both daylight and nighttime precipitation. The method of sample selection is explained in detail in the introduction (L86-L99). In accordance with the reviewer's comments, we update section 2.1 with the following information: ‘The introduction has discussed the observation sample's meticulous selection process. There are more convective weather in the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau. The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau experiences greater convective weather. One the one hand, our selection process can eliminate the impact of intense precipitation and convection on the properties of the raindrop spectrum.On the other hand, the sample selection technique can lessen the noise brought on by various rain spectral features brought on by various precipitation start times.’
L96-L97 Is it possible to indicate the mean hours?
Response:Thank you for your careful check. It is mentioned in L101 that the sampling time is 60s.
L183 The values of the four parameters are very close to each other,between day and night. Did the authors make an attempt to verify whether the differences between day and nightvalues are statistically significant?Provide the statistical significance between the differences of the means of the four parameters.
Response: In this part, the differences of microphysical parameters of the two precipitation types are discussed. In our review of other studies of the microphysical parameters of raindrop spectra, most of the studies did not provide statistical significance, so we considered not providing this section.
L196-L198 Could this maximum N(D)be a result of the overlap between the times of occurrence between day and night?
Response:Here maximum N(D) is the result of all samples.
L389-390 Is it true?Figure 5 shows that in all panels except (d)and (e)the M-P distribution is closer to the observed values.I recommend using the goodness-of-fit test,to both the M-P and Gamma distribution to test this statement.
Response: Thank you for your careful check. In the description of Figure 5, Both functions can well fit the raindrop spectra of the two precipitation types (Fig. 5), with correlation coefficients being no less than 0.97and reaches 0.98 for the gamma distribution function. The figure shows that the two fits are superior in the tiny particle size region; however, above 4mm, the gamma distribution is closer.
In the conclusions,provide some information about how the results of this study contribute to a better understanding of summer precipitation in the TP
Response: Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion. We added to the conclusion: ‘Different sample selection techniques are suggested in this study compared to previous research. The results are still not fully resolved because of the small number of data samples. However,we aim to be able to offer another way for other researchers to choose raindrop spectrum observation data samples.’
Other minor corrections are the following
L50 Revise Tsuyoshi et al (2007)…is not in the literature section,instead [19]Testu et al (2001)is cited
Response：Thank you for your careful check. We've changed it accordingly.
L60 Revise Hatsuki et al (2005)…is not in the literature section,instead [12]Fujinami et al (2005)is cited
Response：Thank you for your careful check. We've changed it accordingly.
L249-L252 Use consecutive numbers to designate functions beginning at (3)
Response：Thank you for your careful check. We've changed it accordingly.
L333 Indicate the elevation of the observation site in parenthesis after latitude'
Response：Thank you for your careful check. We've changed it accordingly.
Figure 9.Remove one'n'in'continenntal'
Response：Thank you for your careful check. We've changed it accordingly.
Reviewer 2 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis is a well-designed manuscript with convincing findings. My concerns are:
- The purpose of the study is not clearly stated.
- It is not clear how the findings can be extrapolated towards the entire region, if we recall that the mountainous regions, such as Tibetan Plateau, are spatially heterogeneous and three sites cannot be sufficient (i.e., representative) for the entire region.
- Parameters of distributions for each site are presented separately and the authors did not show how they can be connected/correlated. More generalization is warranted.
Anyhow, I believe that the manuscript can be published with minor editorial corrections and my comments may serve as questions/recommendations for the future efforts of the authors' team.
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageThe English Language of the manuscript is good.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your comments on this paper. We have answered your questions in detail and revised the corresponding parts in the paper. Our responses to your questions are as follows:
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
This is a well-designed manuscript with convincing findings. My concerns are:
The purpose of the study is not clearly stated.
It is not clear how the findings can be extrapolated towards the entire region, if we recall that the mountainous regions, such as Tibetan Plateau, are spatially heterogeneous and three sites cannot be sufficient (i.e., representative) for the entire region.
Parameters of distributions for each site are presented separately and the authors did not show how they can be connected/correlated. More generalization is warranted.
Anyhow, I believe that the manuscript can be published with minor editorial corrections and my comments may serve as questions/recommendations for the future efforts of the authors' team.
Response：Thank you so much for your suggestion. In the first line of the summary added:’The impact of unique terrain on the micro-physics of nighttime precipitation on the Tibetan Plateau (TP) has not been fully appreciated, due to a lack of observation.’to illustrate the purpose of our research. We do have this problem with data representation. In the future long-term work, we will also collect as much observational data as possible to improve the representativeness of data. At the same time, we hope that more researchers will be inspired by this paper to validate our findings. Thank you for your comments and ideas for our future work.
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThis is an important study for the TP region, and is well written. However, I have one major concern. As the authors talk about the distribution of rain spectrum, I thought they should use a climatology, for which they need more number of years. The sample they have used is fine, but they need more years of data for generalise the results.
The other comments are are minor:
1. Provide the latitude longitude altitude information of the stations in the table
2. If there is any change in the convection process with altitude, this should be mentioned with respect to the station elevation.
L161: any basis for the rain classification or random?
L185-186: if we know this already, what is new in this study?
L409: Where is Hindustan plain?
Comments on the Quality of English LanguageJust fine, minor issues are there. This can be taken care of during poof-reading.
Author Response
Dear Reviewer,
Thank you very much for your comments on this paper. We have answered your questions in detail and revised the corresponding parts in the paper. Our responses to your questions are as follows:
Comments and Suggestions for Authors
This is an important study for the TP region, and is well written. However, I have one major concern. As the authors talk about the distribution of rain spectrum, I thought they should use a climatology, for which they need more number of years. The sample they have used is fine, but they need more years of data for generalise the results.
The other comments are are minor:
- Provide the latitude longitude altitude information of the stations in the table
Response：Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion. We added the latitude and longitude in section 2.1. Altitude were given in Table 1.
- If there is any change in the convection process with altitude, this should be mentioned with respect to the station elevation.
Response：Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion. At the beginning of this year, we discussed the effect of altitude on the raindrop spectrum in another article (Han et al. 2023), so we did not discuss it more in this article.
Han, H. B., Zhang Y. X., Tian J. B., Kang X. Y. Raindrop size distribution measurements at high altitudes in the Northeastern Tibetan Plateau during summer. Adv. Atmos. Sci. 2023. 40, 1244-1256.
L161: any basis for the rain classification or random?
Response：Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion.Detailed classification methods are mentioned in the introduction and 2.2.
L185-186: if we know this already, what is new in this study?
Response：Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion. Mentioned in the introduction:’...The unique atmospheric thermodynamic processes over the TP greatly influence the weather and climate in its surroundings and even the globe.... ’We expected to analyze the difference between nighttime precipitation and daytime precipitation over the TP from the characteristics of raindrop spectrum. Therefore, extreme precipitation was removed from sample selection, and the influence of precipitation onset time on raindrop spectrum was also considered. What we found: The characteristics of NP reflects in two aspects. First, the sample size of the precipitation at the rain rate of 1.0-5.0 mm h−1 is higher in the nighttime. Second, for the same rain rate, the precipitation particles in the nighttime are larger. We also mentioned in the conclusion:’...This study mainly focuses on the NP characteristics in the northeastern TP from the perspective of raindrop spectrum, but the precipitation characteristics and formation mechanisms over the whole TP need to be further explored using more observations and methodologies, which will be the task in our subsequent study...’. Our study hopes to provide another perspective for the study of night rain over the TP from the microphysical parameters of precipitation, and to provide ideas for the study of raindrop spectra in other regions.
L409: Where is Hindustan plain?
Response：Thank you so much for your questions and suggestion. Hindustan plain is referred to in the citation and we see the address of this area in the figure below.
Taichi Sasaki, T.; Wu, P.; Kimura, F.; Yoshikane, T.; Liu J.; Drastic Evening Increase in Precipitable Water Vapor over the Southeastern Tibetan Plateau. J. Meteorol Soc Jpn. 2003. 81, 1273-1281.
Round 2
Reviewer 1 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsI have no more comments
Reviewer 3 Report
Comments and Suggestions for AuthorsThank you for revising the MS. It is acceptable in in its present form.
