This study aimed to understand the impacts of latent energy as well as snow fall speeds on precipitation properties and synoptic‐scale storm characteristics of a wintertime midlatitude cyclone. Simulations of a potent winter storm that impacted the Rocky Mountains and northern Great Plains of the United States in February 2017 were performed using the Weather Research and Forecasting model with latent heating or cooling from individual microphysical processes systematically turned off and fall speeds adjusted by ±50%. Results indicated substantial impacts on the microphysical characteristics of the simulated storm to fall speed, cooling from sublimation, and warming from deposition. The impacts of cooling and warming were manifested as differences in accumulated snowfall. Increased (decreased) fall speeds led to smaller (larger) ice crystals and total mass, resulting in offsetting effects on the precipitation flux, and thus minimal impacts on snowfall and large‐scale characteristics of the storm. Warming and cooling associated with deposition and sublimation, respectively, impacted the synoptic‐scale dynamics, whereby removing warming from deposition resulted in an increased meridional temperature gradient near the jet stream, thus increasing the jet strength and causing it to be more westerly with less curvature aloft. This in turn limited upper‐level divergence, creating a weaker surface low and shifting the precipitation shield southward. The opposite occurred with the removal of latent cooling due to sublimation. This study highlights the potential importance of latent energy associated with ice sublimation and deposition and fall speeds in the larger‐scale characteristics of winter storms.

中文翻译：

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潜能和降雪速度对冬季中纬旋风的影响

这项研究旨在了解潜能以及降雪速度对冬季中纬气旋的降水特性和天气尺度风暴特征的影响。使用天气研究和预测模型对2017年2月影响落基山脉和北部大平原的强烈冬季暴风进行了模拟，系统对单个微物理过程的潜在加热或冷却进行了系统关闭，并将下降速度调整为±50％。结果表明，对模拟风暴的微物理特征有重大影响，包括下降速度，升华造成的降温和沉积带来的变暖。降温和变暖的影响表现为积雪的差异。下降速度的增加（减小）导致冰晶的较小（较大）和总质量，从而导致对降水通量的抵消作用，从而对降雪和风暴的大规模特征的影响最小。与沉积和升华有关的变暖和降温分别影响天气尺度的动力学，从而消除沉积的变暖导致射流附近的子午温度梯度增加，从而增加了射流强度并使其在偏曲率较小的情况下更西风高高在上。反过来，这限制了上层的发散，形成了较弱的地表低层，并使降水屏障向南移动。相反的情况是由于升华而消除了潜在的冷却。这项研究强调了与冰升华，沉积和下降速度相关的潜能在冬季风暴的更大规模特征中的潜在重要性。