The effects of clouds, sea surface temperature, and its diurnal variation on precipitation efficiency are investigated us ing grid-scale data from nine equilibrium sensitivity cloud-resolving model experiments driven without large-scale vertical velocity. The precipitation efficiencies are respectively defined in surface rainfall, cloud, and rain microphysical budgets. We mathematically and physically demonstrate the relationship between these precipitation efficiencies. The 2 ℃ increases in spatiotemporal invariant sea surface temperature （SST） from 27 ℃ to 29 ℃ and from 29 ℃ to 31 ℃, and the inclusion of diurnal SST difference 1 ℃ and the 1℃ increase in diurnal SST difference generate opposite changes in the precipitation efficiency by changing ice cloud-radiation interactions. The radiative and microphysical processes of ice clouds have opposite effects on the precipitation efficiency because of the rainfall increase associated with the reduction in the saturation mixing ratio caused by the exclusion of radiative effects and the decrease in rainfall related to the reduction in net condensation caused by the exclusion of deposition processes. The radiative effects of water clouds on the precipitation efficiency are statistically insensitive to the radiative effects of ice clouds.
In this study, the effects of key ice microphysical processes on the pre-summer heavy rainfall over southern China during 3-8 June 2008 were investigated. A series of two-dimensional sensitivity cloud-resolving model simulations were forced with zonally uniform vertical velocity, zonal wind, horizontal temperature, and water vapor advection data from the National Centers for Environmental Prediction （NCEP）/Global Data Assimilation System （GDAS）. The effects of key ice microphysical processes on the responses of rainfall to large-scale forcing were analyzed by comparing two sensitivity experiments with a control experiment. In one sensitivity experiment, ice crystal radius, associated with depositional growth of snow from cloud ice, was reduced from 100 #m in the control experiment to 50 #m, and in the other sensitivity experiment the efficiency of the growth of graupel from the accretion of snow was reduced to 50~ from 100% in the control experiment. The results show that the domain-mean rainfall responses to these ice microphysical processes are stronger during the decay phase than during the onset and mature phases. During the decay phase, the increased mean rain rate resulting from the decrease in ice crystal radius is associated with the enhanced mean local atmospheric drying, the increased mean local hydrometeor loss, and the suppressed mean water vapor divergence. The increased mean rain rate caused by the reduction in accretion efficiency is related to the reduced mean water vapor divergence and the enhanced mean local hydrometeor loss.
