著者

SUI Chung-Hsiung SATOH Masaki SUZUKI Kentaroh

出版者

Meteorological Society of Japan

雑誌

気象集誌. 第2輯 (ISSN:00261165)

巻号頁・発行日

pp.2020-024, (Released:2020-03-01)

被引用文献数

23

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Precipitation efficiency (PE) is a useful concept for estimating precipitation under a given environmental condition. PE is used in various situations in meteorology: to evaluate severe precipitation associated with a single storm event; as a parameter of cumulus convective parameterization; and to separate clouds and precipitation in climate projection studies. PE has been defined in several ways. In this review, we start with definitions of PE from microscopic and macroscopic perspectives, and provide estimates of PE based on observational and modeling approaches. Then, we review PE in shallow and organized deep convective systems that provide either a conceptual framework or physical constraints on representations of convection in models. Specifically, we focus on the roles of PE in cloud-radiative feedbacks to climate variability. Finally, we argue the usefulness of PE for investigating cloud and precipitation changes in climate projection studies.