Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

In this study, the statistical characteristics of raindrop size distribution, calculated integral parameters, and the three-parameter gamma function are studied for heavy precipitation events at the headwaters of Urumqi River, by using the observation data from the PWS100 disdrometer. DSD is highly interrelated to the physical processes of rainfall events, and its properties are crucial for understanding the upper-layer mechanisms of clouds and precipitation. The works are interesting and the results are reasonable. However, there are many language errors in the manuscript and the authors should check carefully again the whole article. I recommend that the article is accepted for publication subject to minor revision. Please see the following comments.

Detail comments:

(1) It is suggested to further check the tenses of the full text and the singular and plural nouns. And the description of climatic characteristics is missing in the text, such as the annual precipitation, air temperature and relative humidity. In which months is the rainfall mainly concentrated? Which raindrop type contributes the most to the precipitation process?

(2) The third, fourth and sixth moment are used in this study, the third moment is liquid water content, the fourth moment is precipitation rate, and the sixth moment is radar reflectivity. Would you consider using other moments? Such as the first moment, which is related to the total concentration, as that is a useful parameter.

(3) Many of the comparisons in this work are from studies in China, the differences of DSD in different regions of China are compared in detail. However, there are also numerous researches on DSD characteristics abroad, but you have not shown them in your work, can you add comparisons with studies from other locations, such as the ocean areas versus continental? Total number concentration, etc.

(4) Similarly, the differences in Z-R relationships in different regions of China are compared in detail in this work. How do your results compare to the Marshall-Palmer Z-R relationship? The M-P relationship was recommended in midlatitude areas. Compare your relationship quantitatively with that relationship.

Line 25: “cauclated” to “calculated”

Line 64: “numerious” to “numerous”

Line 99: “Sciencces” to “Sciences”

Line 111: “microphysical processes”, it will be better to ‘microphysical parameters”?

Line 129: “frezzing rain” to “freezing rain”

Line 142: Suggested to change “1 month” to “one month”

Line 145: “using following” to “using following the”

Line 188: “rainfal” to “rainfall”

Line 229: Suggested to change “Fig.4” to “Figure 4”, please check the full text.

Line 325: ‘datastes” to ‘datasets”

Line 336: “For purpose of find” to “For purpose of finding”

Line 403: “disdimeter” to “Disdrometer”

Figure 5: the Y axes should be signed with the units.

Figure 7: the Y axes’ unit should have ().

Figure 8: the X axe should be signed with unit.

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” (remotesensing-2609313). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied comments carefully and have made the correction which we hope meet with approval. The revised portion is marked in yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewers’ comments:

 

Detail comments:

 

(1) It is suggested to further check the tenses of the full text and the singular and plural nouns. And the description of climatic characteristics is missing in the text, such as the annual precipitation, air temperature and relative humidity. In which months is the rainfall mainly concentrated? Which raindrop type contributes the most to the precipitation process?

 Response: Thank you for the advice. We have already checked the tenses of the full text and the singular and plural nouns. And we have added relevant researches in the revising manuscript Line 119-124. The head watershed of Urumqi River is strongly affected by the westerly circulation in summer. Precipitation is mainly concentrated from May to September, and is mainly in the form of solid precipitation such as snow, hail, and graupel. In winter, controlled by the Siberian anticyclone circulation, winter is extremely cold and with little precipitation. The average annual precipitation is 468 mm and the average annual temperature is about -5. 1 ℃.

 

(2) The third, fourth and sixth moment are used in this study, the third moment is liquid water content, the fourth moment is precipitation rate, and the sixth moment is radar reflectivity. Would you consider using other moments? Such as the first moment, which is related to the total concentration, as that is a useful parameter.

Response: Thank you for the question. As shown by Huo et al. (2019), the 0/1/2 moment method exhibited maxima of RMSE and error in D_m, but the minimum for R. The inversion results of 2/3/4, 2/4/6, 3/4/6, and 4/5/6 moment methods do not exhibit obvious differences. The fitting result for the rain rate by 0/1/2 moment method is not dominant. Therefore, the 3/4/6 moments are used to calculate the Gamma parameters in our manuscript. (Seela et al., 2018; Montero Martinez et al., 2021; Wang et al., 2021).

Reference:

Kim H J, Jung W, Suh S H, et al. The Characteristics of Raindrop Size Distribution at Windward and Leeward Side over Mountain Area[J]. Remote Sensing, 2022, 14(10): 2419.

Krishna U V M, Reddy K K, Seela B K, et al. Raindrop size distribution of easterly and westerly monsoon precipitation observed over Palau islands in the Western Pacific Ocean[J]. Atmospheric Research, 2016, 174: 41-51.

Marshall J S., Palmer, W M K. The distribution of raindrops with size[J]. J meteor, 1948, 5, 165–166.

Huo Z, Ruan Z, Wei M, et al. Statistical characteristics of raindrop size distribution in south China summer based on the vertical structure derived from VPR-CFMCW[J]. Atmospheric Research, 2019, 222: 47-61.

Seela B K, Janapati J, Lin P L, et al. A comparison study of summer season raindrop size distribution between Palau and Taiwan, two islands in western Pacific[J]. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 2017, 122(21): 11,787-11,805.

Montero-Martínez G, Gómez-Balvás S S, García-García F. Study of rain classification and the tendency of gamma DSD parameterizations in Mexico[J]. Atmospheric Research, 2021, 252: 105431.

Wang G, Zhou R, Zhaxi S, et al. Raindrop size distribution measurements on the Southeast Tibetan Plateau during the STEP project[J]. Atmospheric Research, 2021, 249: 105311.

 

(3) Many of the comparisons in this work are from studies in China, the differences of DSD in different regions of China are compared in detail. However, there are also numerous researches on DSD characteristics abroad, but you have not shown them in your work, can you add comparisons with studies from other locations, such as the ocean areas versus continental? Total number concentration, etc.

Response: Thank you for the advice. The theme of this article is to study the raindrop spectrum characteristics of extreme precipitation in alpine mountainous areas. In the introduction, we focus on describing the raindrop spectrum characteristics of extreme precipitation and the raindrop spectrum characteristics of mountainous areas, which are related to the theme of this article. Moreover, studies have shown that the raindrop spectral characteristics of inland and ocean are significantly different, so they are not described too much in this article. The maritime and continental convective clusters by Bringi et al. (2003) are shown in figure 6, which can also represents the differences between ocean areas and continental.

 

(4) Similarly, the differences in Z-R relationships in different regions of China are compared in detail in this work. How do your results compare to the Marshall-Palmer Z-R relationship? The M-P relationship was recommended in midlatitude areas. Compare your relationship quantitatively with that relationship.

Response: Thank you for the question. We have already added Marshall-Palmer Z-R relationship in figure 9. And also quantitatively analyzed the difference with the M-P relationship in Line 304-309. Compared to the standard empirical relation Z = 300R1.4, similarly to the Z-R relationship for convective precipitation of headwaters of Urumqi River (Chen et al., 2022), the fitted power law relationship of heavy rain and heavy snow in this work have a lower coefficient A (10 and 228.7, respectively) and a higher index b (2.6 and 2.1, respectively), while the opposite is true for hail events (A = 551.5, b = 1.3). The relationship of Z = 200R^1.6 was recommended in midlatitude areas for stratiform rain (Marshall and Palmer., 1948), it has a higher coefficient and a lower index than heavy rain, and lower coefficient than hail and heavy snow. These indicates that under the same rainfall rates, heavy snow and heavy rain have lower radar reflectivity than standard empirical relation and M-P relationship. The Z-R relationship of heavy rain is basically consistent with that of the whole sample, indicating that heavy rain plays a dominant role in total precipitation. When the rainfall rate is larger, there is a larger Z value of heavy snow, and the slope of the heavy rain relationship is larger in this range. This results in heavy rains with lower rainfall intensities having lower Z values than other types of precipitation.

Figure 9. Scatterplots Z vs. R for heavy rain, heavy snow, and hail. The red, blue, and purple solid lines indicate the fitting power-law relationships of heavy rain, heavy snow, and hail, respectively.

 

Comments on the Quality of English Language

(5) Line 25: ‘cauclated’ to ‘calculated’

Response: Done.

 

(6) Line 64: ‘numerious’ to ‘numerous’

Response: Done.

 

(7) Line 99: ‘Sciencces’ to ‘Sciences’

Response: Done.

 

(8) Line 111: ‘microphysical processes’, it will be better to ‘microphysical parameters’?

Response: Done.

 

(9) Line 142: Suggested to change “1 month” to “one month”

Response: Done.

 

(10) Line 188: ‘rainfal’ to ‘rainfall’

Response: Done.

 

(11) Line 229: Suggested to change “Fig.4” to “Figure 4”, please check the full text.

Response: Done.

 

(12) Line 325: ‘datastes’ to ‘datasets’

Response: Done.

 

(13) Figure 5: the Y axes should be signed with the units.

Response: Done. In Line 233.

 

(14) Figure 7: the Y axes’ unit should have ().

Response: Done.

Figure 7. Raindrop size distribution for the heavy rain (blue), heavy snow (red) and hail (purple) precipitation types.

 

(15) Figure 8: the X axe should be signed with unit.

Response: Done.

 

Figure 8. The relative contribution of each size category to the rainfall rate and total precipitation contribution in the source region of the Urumqi River.

 

(16) Double check the reference format, please refer to the journal specifications for further revision.

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have checked the reference format with the journal’s template.

 

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 2 Report

I really like the work you did here. I have few comments and questions:

 

·      Page 1, Line 25, typo: should be “calculated”

·      Page 3, Lines 124-127, consider breaking into two sentences, like: “The disdrometer consists of four parallel horizontal light sheets. When the drops passes through the light sheet, the light is blocked, and then the detector detects the blocking time at two angles, so that the speed and size of the drops can be calculated (Johannsen et al., 2020).”

·      Pages 4-5, Equation 1-7. Can you explain what is the significance of number 34 in the sums? Is it related to the instrument parameters?

·      Page 6, Line 195, “shown”, not “showed”.

·      Pages 6-7, Lines 204-206, consider breaking into two sentences: “The histograms of Dm of heavy rain, heavy snow and hail are both positively skewed (1.53, 0.88 and 1.28, respectively). On the other hand, the log10Nw histograms show a negative skewness (-0.73, -0.12 and -0.31, respectively).”

·      Page 7, Line 216, might be better as “The red lines represent…”, not “is”.

·      Page 8, Lines 227 and 238, similarly in the Figures 4 and 5 captions: “The red line represents the fitted…”

·      Page 8, Line 228, should be “… are shown…”, not “is showed”.

·      Page 9, Line 257, should be “… in headwaters are shown…”, not “were”.

·      Page 10, Line 271, typo “Furthermore …”

·      Page 10, Line 278, “… events in the headwaters are dominated…” not “is”.

·      Pages 12-13, Lines 334,334, try to fit the Table 3 on a single page.

·      Page 13, Lines 336-337, sentence seems incomplete: “For purpose of find possible reasons for the discrepancies of DSD between the alpine areas of Tianshan Mountains and other parts of Tianshan Mountains.”

·      Page 13, Line 343, typo: “Furthermore, …”

·      Page 14, Lines 363-364, maybe: “The following conclusions can be drawn.”

·      Page 14, Line 370, typo, small letter “t” in “the”, as in here “… entire data set, the average …”

·      Page 14, Line 371-372, start the sentence with “Furthermore, the Dm-log10…”

 

Language-wise, I would suggest to run the text by a native English speaker, if you have a chance. There are few sentences that may need rewording (maybe too long for a single sentence or unclear meaning).

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” (remotesensing-2609313). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied comments carefully and have made the correction which we hope meet with approval. The revised portion is marked in yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewers’ comments:

(1) Page 1, Line 25, typo: should be “calculated”

Response: Done.

 

(2) Page 3, Lines 124-127, consider breaking into two sentences, like: “The disdrometer consists of four parallel horizontal light sheets. When the drops passes through the light sheet, the light is blocked, and then the detector detects the blocking time at two angles, so that the speed and size of the drops can be calculated (Johannsen et al., 2020).”

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have made changes in the manuscript. Figure 2(a) shows the PWS100 disdrometer. The disdrometer consists of four par-allel horizontal light sheets. When the drops passes through the light sheet, the light is blocked, and then the detector detects the blocking time at two angles, so that the speed and size of the drops can be calculated (Johannsen et al., 2020). Single raindrop particle diameter measurement range from 0.1 to 30 mm, velocity measurement range from 0.1 to 30 m s^-1.

 

(3) Pages 4-5, Equation 1-7. Can you explain what is the significance of number 34 in the sums? Is it related to the instrument parameters?

Response: Thank you for the question. In the built-in algorithm of PWS100, the nominal detection size and velocity of individual particles range from 0.1 to 30 mm and 0.1–30 m s⁻¹, respectively. The outputs are arranged in 34 by 34 size and velocity bins. The number 34 means the classes of particles size. It is related to the instrument parameters. We have added an explanation in Line 137: Single raindrop particle diameter measurement range from 0.1 to 30 mm, velocity measurement range from 0.1 to 30 m s^-1, the outputs are arranged in 34 by 34 size and velocity bins. The disdrometer is capable of classify precipitation as frezzing rain, rain, snow flakes, hail, etc.

 

(4) Page 6, Line 195, “shown”, not “showed”.

Response: Done.

 

(5) Pages 6-7, Lines 204-206, consider breaking into two sentences: “The histograms of Dm of heavy rain, heavy snow and hail are both positively skewed (1.53, 0.88 and 1.28, respectively). On the other hand, the log10Nw histograms show a negative skewness (-0.73, -0.12 and -0.31, respectively).”

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have made changes in the manuscript. Divide the entire data set into heavy rain, heavy snow and hail, and it can be found that the mean value of the histogram of heavy snow Dm is 2.72 mm, which is higher than that from heavy rain (1.21 mm) and hail (1.61 mm), and the histograms means of log₁₀N_w from heavy rain is 4.25, which is higher than that from heavy snow (4.02) and hail (3.80). The histograms of D_m of heavy rain, heavy snow and hail are both positively skewed (1.53, 0.88 and 1.28, respectively). On the other hand, the log₁₀N_w histograms show a negative skewness (-0.73, -0.12 and -0.31, respectively). On average, the DSD features in alpine areas of the Tianshan Mountains have higher……

(6) Page 7, Line 216, might be better as “The red lines represent…”, not “is”.

Response: Done.

 

(7) Page 8, Lines 227 and 238, similarly in the Figures 4 and 5 captions: “The red line represents the fitted…”

Response: Done.

 

(8) Page 8, Line 228, should be “… are shown…”, not “is showed”.

Response: Done.

 

(9) Page 9, Line 257, should be “… in headwaters are shown…”, not “were”.

Response: Done.

 

(10) Page 10, Line 271, typo “Furthermore …”

Response: Done.

 

(11) Page 10, Line 278, “… events in the headwaters are dominated…” not “is”.

Response: Done.

 

(12) Pages 12-13, Lines 334,334, try to fit the Table 3 on a single page.

Response: Done.

 

(13) Page 13, Lines 336-337, sentence seems incomplete: “For purpose of find possible reasons for the discrepancies of DSD between the alpine areas of Tianshan Mountains and other parts of Tianshan Mountains.”

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have made changes in the manuscript. In order to find out the possible reasons for the difference in DSD between the al-pine areas of the Tianshan Mountains and other areas of the Tianshan Mountains. We show the mean relative humidity (shaded) and mean……

(14) Page 13, Line 343, typo: “Furthermore, …”

Response: Done.

 

(15) Page 14, Lines 363-364, maybe: “The following conclusions can be drawn.”

Response: Done.

 

(16) Page 14, Line 370, typo, small letter “t” in “the”, as in here “… entire data set, the average …”

Response: Done.

 

(17) Page 14, Line 371-372, start the sentence with “Furthermore, the Dm-log10…”

Response: Done.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 3 Report

In this manuscript the authors tried to report the raindrop size distribution characteristics of heavy rainfall, snowfall and hail precipitations are investigated. The manuscript is well organized and it is clearly written. However, the authors need to considered the below-mentioned points before accepting the manuscript for publication.

 

1.      Even though the manuscript is clearly written, it basically lack in providing the RSD worked previously carried out over Tianshan mountain. Some of the those research works are listed below for reference.

 

Yong Zeng, Lianmei Yang, Yushu Zhou, Zepeng Tong, Yufei Jiang, Ping Chen, Characteristics of orographic raindrop size distribution in the Tianshan Mountains, China, (2022), Atmospheric Research, 278, 106332, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106332.

Zeng, Y.; Yang, L.; Tong, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Chen, P.; Zhou, Y. Characteristics and Applications of Summer Season Raindrop Size Distributions Based on a PARSIVEL² Disdrometer in the Western Tianshan Mountains (China). Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 3988. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14163988

Yong Zeng, Lianmei Yang, Jiangang Li, Yufei Jiang, Zepeng Tong, Xiaomeng Li, Haoyang Li, Jing Liu, Xinyu Lu, Yushu Zhou, Seasonal variation of microphysical characteristics for different rainfall types in the Tianshan Mountains of China, (2023), Atmospheric Research, 295, 107024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2023.107024.

Yong Zeng, Zepeng Tong, Yufei Jiang, Yushu Zhou, Microphysical characteristics of seasonal rainfall observed by a Parsivel disdrometer in the Tianshan Mountains, China, (2022), Atmospheric Research, 280, 106459, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106459

Chen P, Li Z, Wang P, Yang M, Jia Y and Peng J (2022) Raindrop size distribution characteristics in summer of a nival glacial zone in eastern Tianshan, Central Asia. Front. Earth Sci. 10:976732. doi: 10.3389/feart.2022.976732

Zeng, Y.; Li, J.; Yang, L.; Li, H.; Li, X.; Tong, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Liu, J.; Zhang, J.; Zhou, Y. Microphysical Characteristics of Raindrop Size Distribution and Implications for Dual-Polarization Radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimations in the Tianshan Mountains, China. Remote Sens. 2023, 15, 2668.

Jiang, Y., Yang, L., Zeng, Y., Tong, Z., Li, J., Liu, F., Zhang, J., & Liu, J. (2022). Comparison of summer raindrop size distribution characteristics in the western and central Tianshan Mountains of China. Meteorological Applications, 29(3), e2067. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2067

 

2.      Page 2, Section 2.2: The authors are suggested to provide more detailed information about the selection criteria for heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail.

 

3.      Page 6, line 188: Please check the typo error.

 

4.      The x- and y-labels and other labels in Fig. 3, and Fig. 10 are very small. Please increase their font size.

 

5.      Page 7, line 207: “numerical concentration” / “number concentration”?!

 

6.      While describing the results, especially Fig.4,5, 6,7, and 9 the authors can compare and discuss about previous literature on heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail precipitation. An example reference is provided below for authors use.

Yu, T.; Chandrasekar, V.; Xiao, H.; Joshil, S.S. Characteristics of Snow Particle Size Distribution in the PyeongChang Region of South Korea. Atmosphere 2020, 11, 1093. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11101093

 

 

7.      Does Figure 10 belong to heavy rainfall or snowfall or hail fall precipitation or complete study period?! It would be more interesting to see this figure for considered three precipitations types individually.

 

 

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

In this manuscript the authors tried to report the raindrop size distribution characteristics of heavy rainfall, snowfall and hail precipitations are investigated. The manuscript is well organized and it is clearly written. However, the authors need to considered the below-mentioned points before accepting the manuscript for publication.

 

1.      Even though the manuscript is clearly written, it basically lack in providing the RSD worked previously carried out over Tianshan mountain. Some of the those research works are listed below for reference.

 

Yong Zeng, Lianmei Yang, Yushu Zhou, Zepeng Tong, Yufei Jiang, Ping Chen, Characteristics of orographic raindrop size distribution in the Tianshan Mountains, China, (2022), Atmospheric Research, 278, 106332, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106332.

Zeng, Y.; Yang, L.; Tong, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Chen, P.; Zhou, Y. Characteristics and Applications of Summer Season Raindrop Size Distributions Based on a PARSIVEL² Disdrometer in the Western Tianshan Mountains (China). Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 3988. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14163988

Yong Zeng, Lianmei Yang, Jiangang Li, Yufei Jiang, Zepeng Tong, Xiaomeng Li, Haoyang Li, Jing Liu, Xinyu Lu, Yushu Zhou, Seasonal variation of microphysical characteristics for different rainfall types in the Tianshan Mountains of China, (2023), Atmospheric Research, 295, 107024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2023.107024.

Yong Zeng, Zepeng Tong, Yufei Jiang, Yushu Zhou, Microphysical characteristics of seasonal rainfall observed by a Parsivel disdrometer in the Tianshan Mountains, China, (2022), Atmospheric Research, 280, 106459, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106459

Chen P, Li Z, Wang P, Yang M, Jia Y and Peng J (2022) Raindrop size distribution characteristics in summer of a nival glacial zone in eastern Tianshan, Central Asia. Front. Earth Sci. 10:976732. doi: 10.3389/feart.2022.976732

Zeng, Y.; Li, J.; Yang, L.; Li, H.; Li, X.; Tong, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Liu, J.; Zhang, J.; Zhou, Y. Microphysical Characteristics of Raindrop Size Distribution and Implications for Dual-Polarization Radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimations in the Tianshan Mountains, China. Remote Sens. 2023, 15, 2668.

Jiang, Y., Yang, L., Zeng, Y., Tong, Z., Li, J., Liu, F., Zhang, J., & Liu, J. (2022). Comparison of summer raindrop size distribution characteristics in the western and central Tianshan Mountains of China. Meteorological Applications, 29(3), e2067. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2067

 

2.      Page 2, Section 2.2: The authors are suggested to provide more detailed information about the selection criteria for heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail.

 

3.      Page 6, line 188: Please check the typo error.

 

4.      The x- and y-labels and other labels in Fig. 3, and Fig. 10 are very small. Please increase their font size.

 

5.      Page 7, line 207: “numerical concentration” / “number concentration”?!

 

6.      While describing the results, especially Fig.4,5, 6,7, and 9 the authors can compare and discuss about previous literature on heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail precipitation. An example reference is provided below for authors use.

Yu, T.; Chandrasekar, V.; Xiao, H.; Joshil, S.S. Characteristics of Snow Particle Size Distribution in the PyeongChang Region of South Korea. Atmosphere 2020, 11, 1093. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11101093

 

 

7.      Does Figure 10 belong to heavy rainfall or snowfall or hail fall precipitation or complete study period?! It would be more interesting to see this figure for considered three precipitations types individually.

 

 

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” (remotesensing-2609313). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied comments carefully and have made the correction which we hope meet with approval. The revised portion is marked in yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewers’ comments:

 

1. Even though the manuscript is clearly written, it basically lack in providing the RSD worked previously carried out over Tianshan mountain. Some of the those research works are listed below for reference.

Yong Zeng, Lianmei Yang, Yushu Zhou, Zepeng Tong, Yufei Jiang, Ping Chen, Characteristics of orographic raindrop size distribution in the Tianshan Mountains, China, (2022), Atmospheric Research, 278, 106332, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106332.

Zeng, Y.; Yang, L.; Tong, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Chen, P.; Zhou, Y. Characteristics and Applications of Summer Season Raindrop Size Distributions Based on a PARSIVEL2 Disdrometer in the Western Tianshan Mountains (China). Remote Sens. 2022, 14, 3988. https://doi.org/10.3390/rs14163988

Yong Zeng, Lianmei Yang, Jiangang Li, Yufei Jiang, Zepeng Tong, Xiaomeng Li, Haoyang Li, Jing Liu, Xinyu Lu, Yushu Zhou, Seasonal variation of microphysical characteristics for different rainfall types in the Tianshan Mountains of China, (2023), Atmospheric Research, 295, 107024, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2023.107024.

Yong Zeng, Zepeng Tong, Yufei Jiang, Yushu Zhou, Microphysical characteristics of seasonal rainfall observed by a Parsivel disdrometer in the Tianshan Mountains, China, (2022), Atmospheric Research, 280, 106459, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.atmosres.2022.106459

Chen P, Li Z, Wang P, Yang M, Jia Y and Peng J (2022) Raindrop size distribution characteristics in summer of a nival glacial zone in eastern Tianshan, Central Asia. Front. Earth Sci. 10:976732. doi: 10.3389/feart.2022.976732

Zeng, Y.; Li, J.; Yang, L.; Li, H.; Li, X.; Tong, Z.; Jiang, Y.; Liu, J.; Zhang, J.; Zhou, Y. Microphysical Characteristics of Raindrop Size Distribution and Implications for Dual-Polarization Radar Quantitative Precipitation Estimations in the Tianshan Mountains, China. Remote Sens. 2023, 15, 2668.

Jiang, Y., Yang, L., Zeng, Y., Tong, Z., Li, J., Liu, F., Zhang, J., & Liu, J. (2022). Comparison of summer raindrop size distribution characteristics in the western and central Tianshan Mountains of China. Meteorological Applications, 29(3), e2067. https://doi.org/10.1002/met.2067.

Response: Thank you for the advice. However, some references listed by the reviewer already exist in the manuscript. The main purpose of this paper is to study the characteristics of raindrop spectrum in the alpine mountains. Therefore, in the introduction, we state the research status of raindrop spectral characteristics in extreme precipitation and alpine mountains. But in the discussion section, we compared the differences between different areas of the Tianshan Mountains in detail. As shows in Table 4, the references were not added because some of the microphysical parameters in their studies were not available to us and therefore could not be compared.

 

23. Zeng Y, Yang L, Zhou Y, et al. Characteristics of orographic raindrop size distribution in the Tianshan Mountains, China[J]. Atmospheric Research, 2022, 278: 106332.
24. Zeng Y, Yang L, Tong Z, et al. Statistical characteristics of raindrop size distribution during rainy seasons in Northwest China[J]. Advances in Meteorology, 2021, 2021: 1-12.
25. Chen P, Li Z, Wang P, et al. Raindrop size distribution characteristics in summer of a nival glacial zone in eastern Tianshan, Central Asia[J]. Frontiers in Earth Science, 2022, 10: 976732.
26. Zeng Y, Yang L, Tong Z, et al. Characteristics and Applications of Summer Season Raindrop Size Distributions Based on a PARSIVEL2 Disdrometer in the Western Tianshan Mountains (China)[J]. Remote Sensing, 2022, 14(16): 3988.
27. Zeng Y, Yang L, Zhou Y, et al. Statistical Characteristics of Summer Season Raindrop Size Distribution in the Western and Central Tianshan Mountains in China[J]. Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan. Ser. II, 2022, 100(6): 855-872.

 

2. Page 2, Section 2.2: The authors are suggested to provide more detailed information about the selection criteria for heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done.

Table 2. Intensity bounds of heavy rainfall, heavy snow and hail.

Precipitation pattern	Intensity bounds of rain, snow and hail (mm h-1)
Heavy rainfall	i ≥ 10.0
Heavy snow	i ≥ 5.0
Hail	i ≥ 6.7

 

3. Page 6, line 188: Please check the typo error.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done.

 

4. The x- and y-labels and other labels in Fig. 3, and Fig. 10 are very small. Please increase their font size.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done.

Figure 3. Frequency distribution histogram of D_m (left side) and log₁₀N_w (right side) for the (a, b) whole data set and (c, d) heavy rain, (e, f) heavy snow and (g, h) hail subsets. The black curve represents the normal distribution curve.

 

Figure 10. Relative humidity (shaded) and horizontal wind vectors over central Asia at 550-hpa (left) and 850-hpa (right) level by using ERA5 reanalysis data.

 

5. Page 7, line 207: “numerical concentration” / “number concentration”?!

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done. ’numerical’ to ‘number’

 

 

6. While describing the results, especially Fig.4,5, 6,7, and 9 the authors can compare and discuss about previous literature on heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail precipitation. An example reference is provided below for authors use.

Yu, T.; Chandrasekar, V.; Xiao, H.; Joshil, S.S. Characteristics of Snow Particle Size Distribution in the PyeongChang Region of South Korea. Atmosphere 2020, 11, 1093. https://doi.org/10.3390/atmos11101093

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have read this reference carefully. However, a lots comparisons have been added in the manuscript. Line 217-219: The mean value of Dm and log10Nw for the whole heavy precipitation events is 2.28 mm and 4.05, respectively, which is similar to the mean values of convective precipitation in southern China (2.21 mm and 4.36, respectively) (Zhang et al., 2019)…. Line 231-234: On average, the DSD features in alpine areas of the Tianshan Mountains have higher number concentrations compared with other regions of the Tianshan Mountains (4.05 vs. 3.97 for log₁₀N_w), and relatively large-sized drops (Zeng et al., 2022(a))…. Line 271-273: A recent study showed that convective precipitation (rainfall intensity: 5.87 mm h^-1) in at the headwaters of the Urumqi River can be regarded as continental-like clusters (Chen et al., 2022)…. Line 301-306: As shown in Figure 8, the raindrop diameter of 1~3 mm contributes the most to the total concentration of raindrops, accounting for 77.4%; and 2~4 mm accounting for 57.7% to the rain rate., the results are similar to the researches of Ding et al. (2023), they which believed that in extreme precipitation, the mid-sized drops with diameter D in 2-4 mm contributed 61.28% to the rain rate…. And section 3.3. We mainly compared the differences between the three precipitation types, because there is few research in the alpine region. Overall comparison with other regions is made, along with the same microphysical parameters obtained by calculation. We will compare heavy rainfall, snowfall, and hail precipitation in detail in the future work.

 

7. Does Figure 10 belong to heavy rainfall or snowfall or hail fall precipitation or complete study period?! It would be more interesting to see this figure for considered three precipitations types individually.

Response: Thank you for the advice. In Fig.10, we superimposed three precipitation types on the figure simultaneously (red for heavy rainfall, blue for heavy snow and purple for hail) which makes it easier to compare the differences between them. The fitted power law relationships are independent but the datasets are holistic. We have compared the differences between them in section 3.3.

3.3. Z-R Relationship

The exponential relationship between radar reflectivity and rainfall rate in the study of DSD characteristics provides significant support for radar quantitative estimation of precipitation. In this section, the R and Z derived from Equations (2) and (5) were applied to analyze the empirical relation of Z-R (Z = AR^b) by a least-squares method. Figure 9 shows the Z-R fitting curves and relational expressions of the three heavy precipitation patterns in the study area. In order to facilitate comparison, the mid-latitude convective precipitation relationship (solid green line) Z = 300R^1.4 proposed by Fulton et al. [59]; the Z-R relationship (solid wine line) Z = 47.1R^2.0 proposed by Chen et al. [42] through the study of DSD in the headwaters; and Wang et al. [58] proposed that the power law relationship (solid orange line) Z = 53.7R^1.7 of Moto convective precipitation over the Tibetan Plateau are all superimposed on Figure 9.

Compared to the standard empirical relation Z = 300R^1.4, similarly to the Z-R relationship for convective precipitation of headwaters of Urumqi River [42], the fitted power law relationship of heavy rain and heavy snow in this work have a lower coefficient A (10 and 228.7, respectively) and a higher index b (2.6 and 2.1, respectively), while the opposite is true for hail events (A = 551.5, b = 1.3). The relationship of Z = 200R^1.6 was recommended in midlatitude areas for stratiform rain [60], it has a higher coefficient and a lower index than heavy rain, and lower coefficient than hail and heavy snow. These indicates that under the same rainfall rates, heavy snow and heavy rain have lower radar reflectivity than standard empirical relation and M-P relationship. The Z-R relationship of heavy rain is basically consistent with that of the whole sample, indicating that heavy rain plays a dominant role in total precipitation. When the rainfall rate is larger, there is a larger Z value of heavy snow, and the slope of the heavy rain relationship is larger in this range. This results in heavy rains with lower rainfall intensities having lower Z values than other types of precipitation.

Figure 9. Scatterplots Z vs. R for heavy rain, heavy snow, and hail. The red, blue, and purple solid lines indicate the fitting power-law relationships of heavy rain, heavy snow and hail, respectively.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 4 Report

The paper “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine  Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” by Chen and co-workers presents a study on the influence of orography on the microphysical structure of precipitation.

More than 140 precipitation events (about 4000 minutes) have been studied by means of a PWS100 disdrometer located on Tianshan mountains (China), to assess the precipitation (solid and liquid) characteristics, focusing on severe cases.

The topic is interesting and the experimental study of DSD characteristics in natural rain is needed to better understand the underlying physical processes and to improve the calibration of remote sensors. The paper is well written and informative, and the results are clearly presented. Therefore, I suggest the publication of the manuscript, after the minor changes I request below.

Figure 1. Try to improve the quality of the figures: the text are difficult to read. Try to change colors. Moreover, I’m not sure we need here 2 panels.

Lines 184-185. The threshold of 0.002 mm/h for rain is really low especially if the Authors want to concentrate on heavy precipitation. Similar precipitation does not have any effect on the environment. What happens to the dataset if the data are filtered with a more usual threshold (say 0.01 mm/h)?

Lines 209-210. This sentence is unclear. Which are the “underlying surface effects” that impacts on DSD characteristics?

Figure 3. Please, explain what the curves in the plots are.

Figure 7. Why the raindrop DSD is trunked to 1 drops? From Fig. 8 is is clear that larger drops are present in the spectra.

Section 4. Discussion. The Authors here could include a comment on the findings reported in Porcù et al., 2013 (JAS, 70, 1129-1134), where is assessed a dependency of the drop breakup size on the altitude. This effect could have an impact on the DSD comparable or higher than the difference between maritime and continental air masses.

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” (remotesensing-2609313). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied comments carefully and have made the correction which we hope meet with approval. The revised portion is marked in yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewers’ comments:

(1) Figure 1. Try to improve the quality of the figures: the text are difficult to read. Try to change colors. Moreover, I’m not sure we need here 2 panels.

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have made changes in the manuscript. The reason why we use two panels is to show more details of the study area.

Figure 1. (a) Locations of the study area (the red flag) and the topography (m) of Tianshan Mountains; (b) Headwaters of Urumqi River (a), and the red star indicates the automatic weather station (AWS) where PWS100 is located.

 

 

(2) Lines 184-185. The threshold of 0.002 mm/h for rain is really low especially if the Authors want to concentrate on heavy precipitation. Similar precipitation does not have any effect on the environment. What happens to the dataset if the data are filtered with a more usual threshold (say 0.01 mm/h)?

Response: Thank you for the question. When deleting datasets, we need to ensure that a single precipitation event is no less than 30 minutes, because a lot of precipitation is intermittent. there must be at least one hour of no precipitation period between each event. So that we use a threshold of 0.002 mm/h for rain, otherwise the number of precipitation events would be lack.

 

(3) Lines 209-210. This sentence is unclear. Which are the “underlying surface effects” that impacts on DSD characteristics?

Response: Thank you for the question. We have made changes in the manuscript. Except the difference in altitude, the underlying surface effects (temperature jump, ice surface inversion, and glacier wind) in headwaters of Urumqi River is a significant reason for the variation of DSD characteristics.

 

(4) Figure 3. Please, explain what the curves in the plots are.

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have made changes in the manuscript. Figure 3. Frequency distribution histogram of D_m (left side) and log₁₀N_w (right side) for the (a, b) whole data set and (c, d) heavy rain, (e, f) heavy snow and (g, h) hail subsets. The black curve represents the normal distribution curve.

 

(5) Figure 7. Why the raindrop DSD is trunked to 1 drops? From Fig. 8 is clear that larger drops are present in the spectra.

Response: Thank you for the question. In Fig.7, we used the mean diameter and mean N(D) of each classes to show our results, the number of large raindrops is relatively lower. On the other hand, the calculation method of Fig.7 and Fig.8 is different, Fig.8 only calculates the contribution of each diameter grade to R (rain rates) and N_t (total concentration of raindrops).

 

(6) Section 4. Discussion. The Authors here could include a comment on the findings reported in Porcù et al., 2013 (JAS, 70, 1129-1134), where is assessed a dependency of the drop breakup size on the altitude. This effect could have an impact on the DSD comparable or higher than the difference between maritime and continental air masses.

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have added a comment in Discussion (line 375-381) about the findings reported in Porcù et al., 2013 (JAS, 70, 1129-1134): and glacier wind caused by the cooling effect of the underlying surface of the glacier may be partly responsible for more medium and large size raindrops in alpine Mountains during the rainfall period. Moreover, the reduction in air pressure and density in the upper reaches of the Urumqi River affects the microphysical processes of precipitation formation, condensation, and falling velocity. The empirical relationship be-tween raindrop diameter and terminal velocity at different pressure levels shows that for large-sized raindrops, the 600 hPa raindrop velocity is expected to increase by 30% compared to the 1000 hPa raindrop velocity. This may also affect the collision breakup mechanism and particle size of raindrops (Porcù et al., 2013). Above results may further confirm that the altitude……

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Reviewer 5 Report

This is an interesting study, which should be considered for publication. However, the manuscript needs fairly major attention first (primarily for improved clarity in the text).

I have attached a scanned, annotated, copy of the text indicating the key editorial issues required, the labelled comments below are also flagged in the text

A: I can’t relate the abbreviation DSD to raindrop size distribution.

B: here, and elsewhere, the term ‘alpine Mountains’ (sic) is meaningless. The word alpine implies mountains are present, so its use is redundant.

 C: you need to define Dm and Nw mean.

 D: you need to state what these parameters (Z, A, R, b) mean.

 E: stronger is he wrong word here, not sure exactly what you are trying to say.

 F: the 2006 references should be in alphabetical order.

 G: ‘and so on’ is poor expression, give all details.

 H: reference required.

 I: references need to be in date and alphabetical order.

 J: meaning unclear. Underlying surface is inside the glacier (or arguably the base). Not clear how these areas affect microclimate.

 K: what do you mean by ‘selecting’?

 L: the labels on the maps are not easy to read. A third map showing the context of the study area in China would be helpful.

 M: don’t use etc, give all details.

 N: meaning unclear. If you say included there is an implication that other data were used.

 O: why is this et to 40 (as opposed to any other value).

 P: Equation unclear, you mention 3/4/6 moments but use 2/3/4/6 in the equation.

 Q: text confusing. You have said that most rainfall events are intermittent, but then that there must be at least 30 minutes between events.

 R: what does ‘splashes’ mean?

 S: looks like there is text missing.

 T: looks like there is text missing.

 U: evidence for this?

 V: poor English expression. ‘larger’ is the wrong word(but I am not sure what you are trying to say).

 W: please provide a key for the symbols used at the head of the columns.

 X: you have introduced the number 1 glacier without explanation.

 Y: definitions of column headings required.

 Z: don’t know what you mean by ‘significantly higher’ (and you need to provide the statistical data if you are talking about significance).

 AA: poor English

 AB: parameters need definition in the conclusions.

 AC: see previous comment about underlying surface.

 AD: define OPE.

 AE: if the references are in alphabetical order I don’t see the need for numbers.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewer:

Thank you for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” (remotesensing-2609313). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied comments carefully and have made the correction which we hope meet with approval. The revised portion is marked in yellow in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewers’ comments:

A: I can’t relate the abbreviation DSD to raindrop size distribution.

Response: Thank you for the question. We have fixed this error.

 

B: here, and elsewhere, the term ‘alpine Mountains’ (sic) is meaningless. The word alpine implies mountains are present, so its use is redundant.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done.

 

 C: you need to define Dm and Nw mean.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done. mass-weighted mean diameter-normalized intercept parameter

 

 D: you need to state what these parameters (Z, A, R, b) mean.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done. radar reflectivity (Z), rain rate (R), coefficient A, index b

 

 E: stronger is he wrong word here, not sure exactly what you are trying to say.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Changed “stronger” to “more efficient”

 

 F: the 2006 references should be in alphabetical order.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Done.

 

 G: ‘and so on’ is poor expression, give all details.

Response: Done.

 

 H: reference required.

Response: Done.

 

 I: references need to be in date and alphabetical order.

Response: Done.

 

 J: meaning unclear. Underlying surface is inside the glacier (or arguably the base). Not clear how these areas affect microclimate.

Response: Done. It has been shown that the phenomenon of temperature jump, ice surface inversion, and glacier wind caused by the cooling effect of the surface of glaciers will affect the regional microclimate (Tstsuo et al., 1989; Zhang and Zhou., 2000; Zhang et al., 2011). underlying surface of glaciers means glacier surface.

 

 K: what do you mean by ‘selecting’?

Response: Thank you for the question. We have fixed this error. what are the characteristics of the DSDs and microphysical of extreme precipitation in alpine region which has been classified as heavy rainfall, heavy snow, hail, and freezing rain?

 

 L: the labels on the maps are not easy to read. A third map showing the context of the study area in China would be helpful.

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have made changes in the manuscript. The reason why we use two panels is to show more details of the study area. The main purpose of the map is to show the terrain and geographical location of the study area. Because the topic of national boundaries is now sensitive, we have not added them.

 

Figure 1. (a) Locations of the study area (the red flag) and the topography (m) of Tianshan Mountains; (b) Headwaters of Urumqi River (a), and the red star indicates the automatic weather station (AWS) where PWS100 is located.

 

 M: don’t use etc, give all details.

Response: Done. The disdrometer is capable of classify precipitation as drizzle, freezing drizzle, freezing rain, rain, snow grains, snow flake, ice pellets, hail and graupel.

 

 N: meaning unclear. If you say included there is an implication that other data were used.

Response: Done. Changed “included” to “is”.

 O: why is this et to 40 (as opposed to any other value).

Response: Thank you for the question. We have fixed this error. 0.004 m²

 

 P: Equation unclear, you mention 3/4/6 moments but use 2/3/4/6 in the equation.

Response: Thank you for the question. Computing the gamma distribution parameters requires three moments. In this paper, the 3/4/6 moments are used. In equation 9, the number ’2’ means square.

 Q: text confusing. You have said that most rainfall events are intermittent, but then that there must be at least 30 minutes between events.

Response: Thank you for the question. When deleting datasets, we need to ensure that a single precipitation event is no less than 30 minutes, and there must be at least one hour of no precipitation period between each event because a lot of precipitation is intermittent. If it’s less than 30 minutes, we will delete this set of data. This aims to reduce the statistical errors.

 

 R: what does ‘splashes’ mean?

Response: Thank you for the question. The ‘splashes’ means ‘scatter’ in Fig.4.

 

 S: looks like there is text missing.

Response: Thank you for the question. The index in Dm - R relationship is positive for heavy rain and hail events, indicating that at higher rainfall rate, the Dm is larger. On the contrary, the relationship is negative for heavy snow events.

 T: looks like there is text missing.

Response: Thank you for the question. Done.

 U: evidence for this?

Response: Thank you for the question. Definitely.

 V: poor English expression. ‘larger’ is the wrong word(but I am not sure what you are trying to say).

Response: Done. Changed “larger” to “higher”.

 

 W: please provide a key for the symbols used at the head of the columns.

Response: Done. Changed “furth more” to “furthermore”.

 

 X: you have introduced the number 1 glacier without explanation.

Response: Thank you for the question. We have introduced number 1 glacier in section 2.1.

 

 Y: definitions of column headings required.

Response: Thank you for the question. We have added the definitions in line 350-351. The DSD datasets observed by PWS100 indicates that the physical parameters rain rate (R), liquid water content (W), total concentration of raindrops (N_t) and radar reflectivity factor (Z)….

 

 Z: don’t know what you mean by ‘significantly higher’ (and you need to provide the statistical data if you are talking about significance).

Response: Thank you for the question. The ‘significantly higher’ means the rainfall microphysical parameters in present study.

 

 AA: poor English

Response: Thank you for the question. We have improved in English expression.

 

 AB: parameters need definition in the conclusions.

Response: Thank you for the question. Done. mass-weighted mean diameter (D_m), normalized intercept parameter (log₁₀N_w)

 

 AC: see previous comment about underlying surface.

Response: Thank you for the question. Done. ‘Underlying surface of glaciers’ means glacier surface.

 AD: define OPE.

Response: Thank you for the advice. We have added the definition. quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE).

 

 AE: if the references are in alphabetical order I don’t see the need for numbers

Response: Thank you for the question. We have revised the references with journal’s template.

 

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 5 Report

My thanks to the authors for addressing many of my comments on the first version of the MS. It is easier to obtain a sense of the science now.

 

There are still a few issues with the MS. 

 

The editorial process by the authors has introduced some additional errors, which require correction. There were also a few editorial changes required in the original submission which I did not pick up at the time.

 

Whilst the authors have provided responses to my comments/concerns on the original MS, they have not addressed all of them in the revision. Please see comments O, P, R, Y and Z in the original. These need attention to provide essential clarity to the revised MS.

 

I have attached a scanned annotated copy of the revised text. Time constraints do not permit a more detailed listing of these here. However, it is essential these issues are addressed before the MS can be considered for publication.

Comments for author File: Comments.pdf

Author Response

Dear editor and reviewer:

We sincerely thank you again for your letter and for the reviewers’ comments concerning our manuscript entitled “Raindrop Size Distribution Characteristics of Heavy Precipitation Events Based on a PWS100 Disdrometer in the Alpine Mountains, Eastern Tianshan, China” (remotesensing-2609313). Those comments are all valuable and very helpful for revising and improving our paper, as well as the important guiding significance to our research. We have studied comments carefully and have made the correction which we hope meet with approval. The revised portion is marked in red in the paper. The main corrections in the paper and the responses to the reviewers’ comments are as flowing:

Responds to the reviewers’ comments:

 

(1) The editorial process by the authors has introduced some additional errors, which require correction. There were also a few editorial changes required in the original submission which I did not pick up at the time.

Response: Thank you for the advice. The additional errors have been corrected. The revised portion is marked in red.

 

(2) Whilst the authors have provided responses to my comments/concerns on the original MS, they have not addressed all of them in the revision. Please see comments O, P, R, Y and Z in the original. These need attention to provide essential clarity to the revised MS.

Response: Thank you for the advice. Comments O, P, R, Y and Z has been solved in the revised manuscripts.

O: why is this et to 40 (as opposed to any other value).

Response: S stands for the sampling area of the instrument, and the sampling area of the PWS100 is 0.004 m².

P: Equation unclear, you mention 3/4/6 moments but use 2/3/4/6 in the equation.

Response: We have added instructions to the manuscript. Line 184-185. Computing the gamma distribution parameters requires three moments. In this paper, the 3/4/6 moments are used (note that the superscripts 2 and 3 of M in Equation (9) are square and cubic, respectively.) [17,49,52]…..

R: what does ‘splashes’ mean?

Response: The dots in D_m vs. R are dispersive, particularly for heavy rain, this indicates that D_m of heavy rain has high variability with the change of rain rate.

Y: definitions of column headings required.

Response: Done (table 3&4). ² Parameters such as R, N_t, W, Z, D_m and N_w are rain rate, total number concentration, liquid water content, radar reflectively factor, mass-weighted mean diameter and normalized intercept parameter, respectively.

Z: don’t know what you mean by ‘significantly higher’ (and you need to provide the statistical data if you are talking about significance).

Response: Done. The results mentioned above may further confirm that the altitude, underlying surface, and orographic effects make the rainfall microphysical parameters such as total number concentration, liquid water content and mass-weighted mean diameter (Table 4) in the alpine area significantly higher than those in other areas of Tianshan Mountains[23,61,62], and the DSD characteristics significantly different from the general atmospheric circulation is more complicated.

 

• Response to T: looks like there is text missing. > In order to find out the possible reasons explaining the difference in DSD between the alpine areas and other parts of the Tianshan Mountains, the mean relative humidity (shaded) and mean horizontal wind vectors over central Asia from 2019 to 2022 at 550-hpa (left) and 850-hpa (right) level was analyzed using ERA5 reanalysis data as shown in Figure 10.
• We improved fig.1
• Color in fig.7 has been transformed.
• Definition of physical parameters has been added.

 

Figure 1. (a) Locations of the study area (the red flag) and the topography (m) of Tianshan Mountains; (b) Headwaters of Urumqi River (a), and the red star indicates the automatic weather station (AWS) where PWS100 is located.

 

Figure 7. Raindrop size distribution for heavy rain (blue), heavy snow (red) and hail (dark grey)

Author Response File: Author Response.docx