Radar Investigations of Cloud Merger

T. W. Krauss, A. A. Sin’kevich, and A. S. Ghulam

Presented are the results of radar investigations of cloud merger during their natural cycle of development and after the seeding. The observations were carried out in the southwest of the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia in 2008. It is revealed that the merging was observed under conditions of very unstable atmosphere, when the convective available potential energy exceeded 3000 J/kg. The cloud merger impacts significantly their development. The most considerable changes due to the cloud merging were observed for the cloud mass and precipitation flow increased as a result of this process by two or three times. It is discovered that the impact of the merger of clouds on their characteristics exceeds significantly the effect of seeding carried out for the feeder clouds.