A MAGIC Layer Around -15°C: Dynamical and Microphysical Process

Microphysical and dynamical processes are investigated in the layer around around -15°C to -17°C that is identified as dominant dendritic growth. In the literature, this layer showed distinctive signature of ZDR maximum and KDP maximum below. Many researchers explained this signature as dendritic growth but rapid growth of smaller pristine or planar crystal was need to explain rapid increase of KDP maximum below. A bi-modal Doppler power spectra was reported from vertical pointing cloud radar measurement to support smaller pristine or planar crystal. This research shows similar bi-modal spectra, and ZDR and KDP feature around this layer. In addition, mesoscale ascent was evident below the layer in climatological sense. Thus, we try to explain an intertwined effect of microphysical and dynamical processes in the layer and speculate new ice nucleation by mesoscale ascent below and diabatic heating due to excess vapor density.