Professor from the Department of Atmospheric and Oceanic Sciences, School of Physics, Peking University; Director of the China Meteorological Administration Tornado Key Laboratory; Mainly works on the mechanisms, numerical modeling, data assimilation, and predictability of mesoscale and microscale systems and related severe weather events. Has published 99 papers, with 2,914 citations per Web of Science and an h-index of 32. Fellow of the American Meteorological Society; Recipient of the National Science Fund for Distinguished Young Scholars, China Young Women in Science Award, and the Editor’s Award of the Monthly Weather Review (MWR) from the American Meteorological Society. Currently serves as Vice President of the Chinese Meteorological Society, Executive Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Acta Meteorologica Sinica, Deputy Editor-in-Chief of the Torrential Rain and Disasters journal, and an editorial board member of several academic journals including Monthly Weather Review (MWR), Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society (QJRMS), Advances in Atmospheric Sciences (AAS), Science China Earth Sciences, and Meteorology.
Multiple Parallel Rain Bands of Mesoscale Convective Systems
Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) with a special organizational mode of multiple parallel rainband (MPRB) tend to produce severe heavy rainfall through both cell and rainband training effects. This study systematically investigates the general features and formation mechniam of MPRBs in China. Based on observations from 2016–2020, 178 MPRB cases were identified over China, classified into initiation type (71 cases) and differentiation type (107 cases). It was found that MPRBs occur most frequently in July, with high-frequency areas along the northern Beibu Gulf coast and minor frequencies in Guangdong, northern Jiangxi, and southern Shandong. Statistically, 90% of MPRBs exhibit training effects, 69% involve back-building processes, but only 24% display both training modes simultaneously. MPRBs generally move slower than squall lines in eastern China, with precipitation significantly enhanced in 71% of cases. Using convection-resolving WRF simulations, the formation mechanisms of MPRBs in high-frequency regions were revealed. Along the Beibu Gulf coast, low coastal mountains tend to elevate horizontal convective rolls, triggering back-building and MPRB development. It was found that mountains with heights between 200-600 m are favorable for the MPRB formation through accumulating water vapor and lifting HCRs, while mountains that are too high or too low are not favorable for the MPRB formation because of HCRs being destroyed or inadequately elevated. Over flat terrain in Jiangxi, MPRBs may form through combined effects of bores generated by cold pools and back-building along their edges. Results showed that rainbands initiated by bores formed rapidly than by the cold pool of the MCS. Ensemble simulations demonstrated that members failing to reproduce the MPRB lacked well-defined bores due to weaker low-level vertical wind shear and surface outflow, which also inhibited the backbuilding process.