<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE article PUBLIC "-//NLM//DTD Journal Publishing DTD v3.0 20080202//EN" "https://jats.nlm.nih.gov/nlm-dtd/publishing/3.0/journalpublishing3.dtd">
<article xmlns:mml="http://www.w3.org/1998/Math/MathML" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink" article-type="research-article" specific-use="SMUR" dtd-version="3.0" xml:lang="en">
<front>
<journal-meta>
<journal-id journal-id-type="publisher">EGUsphere</journal-id>
<journal-title-group>
<journal-title>EGUsphere</journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="publisher">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
<abbrev-journal-title abbrev-type="nlm-ta">EGUsphere</abbrev-journal-title>
</journal-title-group>
<issn pub-type="epub"></issn>
<publisher><publisher-name>Copernicus Publications</publisher-name>
<publisher-loc>Göttingen, Germany</publisher-loc>
</publisher>
</journal-meta>
<article-meta>
<article-id pub-id-type="doi">10.5194/egusphere-2026-1725</article-id>
<title-group>
<article-title>Environmental moisture and stability controls on raindrop size distribution within convective clouds under sheared conditions</article-title>
</title-group>
<contrib-group><contrib contrib-type="author" xlink:type="simple"><name name-style="western"><surname>Unuma</surname>
<given-names>Takashi</given-names>
<ext-link>https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4350-9758</ext-link>
</name>
<xref ref-type="aff" rid="aff1">
<sup>1</sup>
</xref>
</contrib>
</contrib-group><aff id="aff1">
<label>1</label>
<addr-line>Meteorological Research Institute, Japan Meteorological Agency, Tsukuba, Ibaraki, Japan</addr-line>
</aff>
<pub-date pub-type="epub">
<day>27</day>
<month>04</month>
<year>2026</year>
</pub-date>
<volume>2026</volume>
<fpage>1</fpage>
<lpage>20</lpage>
<permissions>
<copyright-statement>Copyright: &#x000a9; 2026 Takashi Unuma</copyright-statement>
<copyright-year>2026</copyright-year>
<license license-type="open-access">
<license-p>This work is licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License. To view a copy of this licence, visit <ext-link ext-link-type="uri"  xlink:href="https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/">https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/</ext-link></license-p>
</license>
</permissions>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1725/">This article is available from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1725/</self-uri>
<self-uri xlink:href="https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1725/egusphere-2026-1725.pdf">The full text article is available as a PDF file from https://egusphere.copernicus.org/preprints/2026/egusphere-2026-1725/egusphere-2026-1725.pdf</self-uri>
<abstract>
<p>Environmental conditions significantly influence the intensity of organised convective systems. However, variations in factors such as temperature, humidity, and vertical shear suggest that non-linear relationships may exist between these systems and their environments. To address gaps in these variations, it is crucial to understand the cloud microphysical processes inherent to convective systems. In this study, we conducted numerical experiments using the Weather Research and Forecasting model in idealised setups with a spectral-bin microphysical scheme that explicitly handles drop-size distributions. The initial conditions included variations in humidity, temperature lapse rates, and vertical wind shear that reflect observed relationships. The results showed that larger temperature lapse rates produced larger raindrops, resulting in stronger rainfall intensity. Increased moisture in the lower troposphere led to stronger rainfall intensity, driven by a larger concentration of smaller raindrops and increased liquid water content. The magnitude of vertical shear generally causes fluctuations in the drop size distribution within convective clouds. Particularly, weaker vertical shear tends to inhibit the propagation of convective clouds, reduce vertical variations in the drop-size distribution within them, and may reduce the raindrop evaporation rate, thereby increasing rainfall amounts. These findings provide valuable insights that could enhance operational quantitative precipitation estimation and improve the microphysical schemes used in numerical weather models.</p>
</abstract>
<counts><page-count count="20"/></counts>
<funding-group>
<award-group id="gs1">
<funding-source>Japan Society for the Promotion of Science</funding-source>
<award-id>JP24K17126</award-id>
</award-group>
</funding-group>
</article-meta>
</front>
<body/>
<back>
</back>
</article>