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NASA NTRS2011

The Impact of Microphysical Schemes on Hurricane Intensity and Track

During the past decade, both research and operational numerical weather prediction models [e.g. the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF)] have started using more complex microphysical schemes originally developed for high-resolution cloud resolving models (CRMs) with 1-2 km or less horizontal resolutions. WRF is a next-generation meso-scale forecast model and assimilation system. It incorporates a modern software framework, advanced dynamics, numerics and data assimilation techniques, a multiple moveable nesting capability, and improved physical packages. WRF can be used for a wide range of applications, from idealized research to operational forecasting, with an emphasis on horizontal grid sizes in the range of 1-10 km. The current WRF includes several different microphysics options. At NASA Goddard, four different cloud microphysics options have been implemented into WRF. The performance of these schemes is compared to those of the other microphysics schemes available in WRF for an Atlantic hurricane case (Katrina). In addition, a brief review of previous modeling studies on the impact of microphysics schemes and processes on the intensity and track of hurricanes is presented and compared against the current Katrina study. In general, all of the studies show that microphysics schemes do not have a major impact on track forecasts but do have more of an effect on the simulated intensity. Also, nearly all of the previous studies found that simulated hurricanes had the strongest deepening or intensification when using only warm rain physics. This is because all of the simulated precipitating hydrometeors are large raindrops that quickly fall out near the eye-wall region, which would hydrostatically produce the lowest pressure. In addition, these studies suggested that intensities become unrealistically strong when evaporative cooling from cloud droplets and melting from ice particles are removed as this results in much weaker downdrafts in the simulated storms. However, there are many differences between the different modeling studies, which are identified and discussed.

Tao, Wei-Kuo↗

NASA NTRS2022

Updraft Dynamics and Microphysics: On the Added Value of The Cumulus Thermal Reference Frame in Simulations of Aerosol–Deep Convection Interactions

One fundamental question about atmospheric moist convection processes that remains debated is whether, or under which conditions, a relevant variability in background aerosol concentrations may have a significant dynamical impact on convective clouds and their associated precipitation. Furthermore, current climate models must parameterize both the microphysical and the cumulus convection processes, but this is usually implemented separately, whereas in nature there is a strong coupling between them. As a first step to improve our understanding of these two problems, we investigate how aerosol concentrations modify key properties of updrafts in eight large-eddy-permitting regional simulations of a case study of scattered convection over Houston, Texas, in which convection is explicitly simulated and microphysical processes are parameterized. Dynamical and liquid-phase microphysical responses are investigated using the following two different reference frames: static cloudy updraft grid cells versus tracked cumulus thermals. In both frameworks, we observe the expected microphysical responses to higher aerosol concentrations, such as higher cloud number concentrations and lower rain number concentrations. In terms of the dynamical responses, both frameworks indicate weak impacts of varying aerosol concentrations relative to the noise between simulations over the observationally derived range of aerosol variability for this case study. On the other hand, results suggest that thermals are more selective than cloudy updraft grid cells in terms of sampling the most active convective air masses. For instance, vertical velocity from thermals is significantly higher at upper levels than when sampled from cloudy updraft grid points, and several microphysical variables have higher average values in the cumulus thermal framework than in the cloudy updraft framework. In addition, the thermal analysis is seen to add rich quantitative information about the rates and covariability of microphysical processes spatially and throughout tracked thermal lifecycles, which can serve as a stronger foundation for improving subgrid-scale parameterizations.

aerosols↗

NASA NTRS2022

Updraft Dynamics and Microphysics: On the Added Value of the Cumulus Thermal Reference Frame in Simulations of Aerosol–Deep Convection Interactions

One fundamental question about atmospheric moist convection processes that remains debated is whether or under what conditions a relevant variability in background aerosol concentrations may have a significant dynamical impact on convective clouds and their associated precipitation. Furthermore, current climate models must parameterize both the microphysical and the cumulus convection processes, but this is usually implemented separately, whereas in nature there is a strong coupling between them. As a first step to improve our understanding of these two problems, we investigate how aerosol concentrations modify key properties of updrafts in eight large-eddy permitting regional simulations of a case study of scattered convection over Houston, Texas, in which convection is explicitly simulated and microphysical processes are parameterized. Dynamical and liquid-phase microphysical responses are investigated using two different reference frames: static cloudy-updraft grid cells versus tracked cumulus thermals. In both frameworks we observe the expected microphysical responses to higher aerosol concentrations, such as higher cloud number concentrations and lower rain number concentrations. In terms of the dynamical responses, both frameworks indicate weak impacts of varying aerosol concentrations relative to the noise between simulations over the observationally derived range of aerosol variability for this case study. On the other hand, results suggest that thermals are more selective than cloudy-updraft grid cells in terms of sampling the most active convective air masses. For instance, vertical velocity from thermals is significantly higher at upper levels than when sampled from cloudy-updraft grid points, and several microphysical variables have higher average values in the cumulus thermal framework than in the cloudy-updraft framework. In addition, the thermal analysis is seen to add rich quantitative information about the rates and covariability of microphysical processes spatially and throughout tracked thermal lifecycles, which can serve as a stronger foundation for improving subgrid-scale parameterizations.

Daniel Hernandez-Deckers↗

NASA NTRS2016

Performance of the Goddard Multiscale Modeling Framework with Goddard Ice Microphysical Schemes

The multiscale modeling framework (MMF), which replaces traditional cloud parameterizations with cloud-resolving models (CRMs) within a host atmospheric general circulation model (GCM), has become a new approach for climate modeling. The embedded CRMs make it possible to apply CRM-based cloud microphysics directly within a GCM. However, most such schemes have never been tested in a global environment for long-term climate simulation. The benefits of using an MMF to evaluate rigorously and improve microphysics schemes are here demonstrated. Four one-moment microphysical schemes are implemented into the Goddard MMF and their results validated against three CloudSat/CALIPSO cloud ice products and other satellite data. The new four-class (cloud ice, snow, graupel, and frozen drops/hail) ice scheme produces a better overall spatial distribution of cloud ice amount, total cloud fractions, net radiation, and total cloud radiative forcing than earlier three-class ice schemes, with biases within the observational uncertainties. Sensitivity experiments are conducted to examine the impact of recently upgraded microphysical processes on global hydrometeor distributions. Five processes dominate the global distributions of cloud ice and snow amount in long-term simulations: (1) allowing for ice supersaturation in the saturation adjustment, (2) three additional correction terms in the depositional growth of cloud ice to snow, (3) accounting for cloud ice fall speeds, (4) limiting cloud ice particle size, and (5) new size-mapping schemes for snow and graupel. Despite the cloud microphysics improvements, systematic errors associated with subgrid processes, cyclic lateral boundaries in the embedded CRMs, and momentum transport remain and will require future improvement.

snow↗

NASA NTRS1999

Studies of Radiation and Microphysics in Cirrus and Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

Two tasks were completed during this period. In the first, we examined the polarization of millimeter-wavelength radar beams scattered by ice crystals. Because of their non-spherical shape and size, ice crystals depolarize the incident polarized radar beam. In principle, this depolarization can be used to identify ice from liquid water, as well as provide some information on size. However, the amount of de-polarization is small, producing only a weak signal at the receiver. Our task was to determine the magnitude of such a signal and decide if our radar would be capable of measuring it under typical cirrus conditions. The theoretical study was carried out by Henrietta Lemke, a visiting graduate student from Germany. She had prior experience using a discrete dipole code to compute scattering depolarization. Dr. Kultegin Aydin of the Penn State Electrical Engineering Department, who is also expert in this area, consulted with us on this project at no cost to the project. Our conclusion was that the depolarization signal is too weak to be usefully measured by our system. Therefore we proceeded no further in this study. The second task involved the study of the effect of stratus microphysics on surface cloud forcing. Manajit Sengupta, a graduate student, and the project PI jointly carried out this task. The study used data culled from over a year of continuous radar and radiometer observations at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement (ARM) site in Oklahoma. The study compared solar radiation calculations made using constant microphysics with calculations made using a retrieved mean particle size. The results showed that on average the constant microphysics produced the correct forcing when compared with the observed forcing. We conclude, therefore, that there is little impetus on radiation grounds alone to include explicit microphysics in climate models. The question of pollutant particle emission impacts on microphysics remains to be resolved. A manuscript is in preparation and will be submitted this year.

Source record↗

NASA NTRS2001

Numerical Simulations of Precipitation Processes, Microphysics, and Microwave Radiative Properties of flood Producing Storms in Mediterranean & Adriatic Basins

A comprehensive understanding of the meteorological and microphysical nature of Mediterranean storms requires a combination of in situ data analysis, radar data analysis, and satellite data analysis, effectively integrated with numerical modeling studies at various scales. An important aspect of understanding microphysical controls of severe storms, is first understanding the meteorological controls under which a storm has evolved, and then using that information to help characterize the dominant microphysical processes. For hazardous Mediterranean storms, highlighted by the October 5-6, 1998 Friuli flood event in northern Italy, a comprehensive microphysical interpretation requires an understanding of the multiple phases of storm evolution. This involves intense convective development, Sratiform decay, orographic lifting, and sloped frontal lifting processes, as well as the associated vertical motions and thermodynamical instabilities governing physical processes that effect details of the size distributions and fall rates of the various types of hydrometeors found within the storm environment. This talk overviews the microphysical elements of a severe Mediterranean storm in such a context, investigated with the aid of TRMM satellite and other remote sensing measurements, but guided by a nonhydrostatic mesoscale model simulation of the Friuli flood event. The data analysis for this paper was conducted by my research groups at the Global Hydrology and Climate Center in Huntsville, AL and Florida State University in Tallahassee, and in collaboration with Dr. Alberto Mugnai's research group at the Institute of Atmospheric Physics in Rome. The numerical modeling was conducted by Professor Oreg Tripoli and Ms. Giulia Panegrossi at the University of Wisconsin in Madison, using Professor Tripoli's nonhydrostatic modeling system (NMS). This is a scalable, fully nested mesoscale model capable of resolving nonhydrostatic circulations from regional scale down to cloud scale and below.

Smith, Eric A.↗

NASA NTRS1996

A Comparison of Cloud Microphysical and Optical Properties during TOGA-COARE

The impact of cirrus clouds on climate is an issue of research interest currently. Whether cirrus clouds heat or cool the Earth-atmosphere system depends on the cloud shortwave albedo and infrared reflectance and absorptance. These in turn are determined by the size distribution, phase, and composition of particles in the clouds. The TOGA-COARE campaign presented an excellent opportunity to study cirrus clouds and their influence on climate. In this campaign, a microphysics instrument package was flown aboard the DC-8 aircraft at medium altitudes in cirrus clouds. This package included a 2D Greyscale Cloud Particle Probe, a Forward Scattering Spectrometer Aerosol Probe, and an ice crystal replicator. At the same time the ER-2 equipped with a radiation measurement system flew coordinated flight tracks above the DC-8 at very high altitude. The radiation measurement made were short and long wave fluxes, as well as narrowband fluxes, both upwelling and downwelling. In addition LIDAR data is available. The existence of these data sets allows for a the comparison of radiation measurement with microphysical measurements. For example, the optical depth and effective radius retrieved from the ER-2 radiation measurements can be compared to the microphysical data. Conversely, the optical properties and fluxes produced by the clouds can be calculated from the microphysical measurements and compared to those measured aboard the ER-2. The assumptions required to make these comparisons are discussed. Typical microphysical results show a prevalence of micron-sized particles, in addition to the cloud particles that exceed 100 mm. The large number of small particles or "haze" cause the effective cloud radii to shift to smaller sizes, leading to changes in optical parameters.

Strawa, A. W.↗

NASA NTRS2002

Meteorology, Macrophysics, Microphysics, Microwaves, and Mesoscale Modeling of Mediterranean Mountain Storms: The M8 Laboratory

Comprehensive understanding of the microphysical nature of Mediterranean storms can be accomplished by a combination of in situ meteorological data analysis and radar-passive microwave data analysis, effectively integrated with numerical modeling studies at various scales, from synoptic scale down through the mesoscale, the cloud macrophysical scale, and ultimately the cloud microphysical scale. The microphysical properties of and their controls on severe storms are intrinsically related to meteorological processes under which storms have evolved, processes which eventually select and control the dominant microphysical properties themselves. This involves intense convective development, stratiform decay, orographic lifting, and sloped frontal lifting processes, as well as the associated vertical motions and thermodynamical instabilities governing physical processes that affect details of the size distributions and fall rates of the various types of hydrometeors found within the storm environment. Insofar as hazardous Mediterranean storms, highlighted in this study by three mountain storms producing damaging floods in northern Italy between 1992 and 2000, developing a comprehensive microphysical interpretation requires an understanding of the multiple phases of storm evolution and the heterogeneous nature of precipitation fields within a storm domain. This involves convective development, stratiform transition and decay, orographic lifting, and sloped frontal lifting processes. This also involves vertical motions and thermodynamical instabilities governing physical processes that determine details of the liquid/ice water contents, size disi:ributions, and fall rates of the various modes of hydrometeors found within hazardous storm environments.

Starr, David O.↗

NASA NTRS2004

Sensitivity of a Cloud-Resolving Model to the Bulk and Explicit Bin Microphysical Schemes

A cloud-resolving model is used to study sensitivities of two different microphysical schemes, one is the traditional bulk type, and the other is an explicit bin scheme, in simulating a mid-latitude squall line case (PRE-STORM, June 10-1 1,1985). Simulations using different microphysical schemes are compared with each other and also with the observations. Both the bulk and bin models reproduce the general features during the developing and mature stage of the system. Furthermore, the observations and the well-proven bulk scheme simulation serve as validations for the newly incorporated bin scheme. However, it is also shown that the bulk and bin simulations have distinct differences, most notably in the stratiform region of the squall line system. Weak convective cells exist in the stratiform region in the bulk simulation, but not in the bin simulation. These weak convective cells in the stratiform region simulated in the bulk scheme model are remnants of the stronger convections previously at the leading edge of the system, sustained by horizontal vorticity generated by its own cool pool near the surface. The bin simulation, on the other hand, has a horizontally homogeneous stratiform cloud structure, which agrees better with the observations. Examinations of the downdraft core strength, the potential temperature perturbation, and the evaporative cooling rate show that the differences between the bulk and bin models are due mainly to the stronger low-level evaporative cooling in the convective zone simulated in the bulk microphysical scheme, which is unrealistic because of the assumptions made in raindrop size distribution. Further sensitivity tests that reduce the evaporation rate in bulk scheme artificially produce more upright convective core and less weak cores in stratiform region. However, they produce weaker upper level outflow and consequently less stratiform rain area. The addition of a more realistic raindrop breakup scheme in the bin scheme results more realistic radar reflectivity and stronger surface rainfall. Despite the increase of the rain evaporation and strengthening of the near surface cool pool, bin scheme with rain breakup shows homogeneous stratiform rain. These sensitivity tests prove the robustness of the bin microphysical scheme and the difficulty of tuning the limited parameters in the bulk microphysical scheme to realistically reproduce detail structures in a mid-latitude squall line case study.

Li, Xiao-Wen↗

NASA NTRS2005

A Hierarchical Modeling Study of the Interactions Among Turbulence, Cloud Microphysics, and Radiative Transfer in the Evolution of Cirrus Clouds

This project used a hierarchy of cloud resolving models to address the following science issues of relevance to CRYSTAL-FACE: What ice crystal nucleation mechanisms are active in the different types of cirrus clouds in the Florida area and how do these different nucleation processes influence the evolution of the cloud system and the upper tropospheric humidity? How does the feedback between supersaturation and nucleation impact the evolution of the cloud? What is the relative importance of the large-scale vertical motion and the turbulent motions in the evolution of the crystal size spectra? How does the size spectra impact the life-cycle of the cloud, stratospheric dehydration, and cloud radiative forcing? What is the nature of the turbulence and waves in the upper troposphere generated by precipitating deep convective cloud systems? How do cirrus microphysical and optical properties vary with the small-scale dynamics? How do turbulence and waves in the upper troposphere influence the cross-tropopause mixing and stratospheric and upper tropospheric humidity? The models used in this study were: 2-D hydrostatic model with explicit microphysics that can account for 30 size bins for both the droplet and crystal size spectra. Notably, a new ice crystal nucleation scheme has been incorporated into the model. Parcel model with explicit microphysics, for developing and evaluating microphysical parameterizations. Single column model for testing bulk microphysics parameterizations

Curry, Judith↗

NASA NTRS2010

Improving the Representation of Snow Crystal Properties Within a Single-Moment Microphysics Scheme

As computational resources continue their expansion, weather forecast models are transitioning to the use of parameterizations that predict the evolution of hydrometeors and their microphysical processes, rather than estimating the bulk effects of clouds and precipitation that occur on a sub-grid scale. These parameterizations are referred to as single-moment, bulk water microphysics schemes, as they predict the total water mass among hydrometeors in a limited number of classes. Although the development of single moment microphysics schemes have often been driven by the need to predict the structure of convective storms, they may also provide value in predicting accumulations of snowfall. Predicting the accumulation of snowfall presents unique challenges to forecasters and microphysics schemes. In cases where surface temperatures are near freezing, accumulated depth often depends upon the snowfall rate and the ability to overcome an initial warm layer. Precipitation efficiency relates to the dominant ice crystal habit, as dendrites and plates have relatively large surface areas for the accretion of cloud water and ice, but are only favored within a narrow range of ice supersaturation and temperature. Forecast models and their parameterizations must accurately represent the characteristics of snow crystal populations, such as their size distribution, bulk density and fall speed. These properties relate to the vertical distribution of ice within simulated clouds, the temperature profile through latent heat release, and the eventual precipitation rate measured at the surface. The NASA Goddard, single-moment microphysics scheme is available to the operational forecast community as an option within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model. The NASA Goddard scheme predicts the occurrence of up to six classes of water mass: vapor, cloud ice, cloud water, rain, snow and either graupel or hail.

Molthan, Andrew L.↗

NASA NTRS2013

Impacts of Microphysical Scheme on Convective and Stratiform Characteristics in Two High Precipitation Squall Line Events

This study investigates the impact of snow, graupel, and hail processes on simulated squall lines over the Southern Great Plains in the United States. The Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model is used to simulate two squall line events in Oklahoma during May 2007, and the simulations are validated against radar and surface observations. Several microphysics schemes are tested in this study, including the WRF 5-Class Microphysics (WSM5), WRF 6-Class Microphysics (WSM6), Goddard Cumulus Ensemble (GCE) Three Ice (3-ice) with graupel, Goddard Two Ice (2-ice), and Goddard 3-ice hail schemes. Simulated surface precipitation is sensitive to the microphysics scheme when the graupel or hail categories are included. All of the 3-ice schemes overestimate the total precipitation with WSM6 having the largest bias. The 2-ice schemes, without a graupel/hail category, produce less total precipitation than the 3-ice schemes. By applying a radar-based convective/stratiform partitioning algorithm, we find that including graupel/hail processes increases the convective areal coverage, precipitation intensity, updraft, and downdraft intensities, and reduces the stratiform areal coverage and precipitation intensity. For vertical structures, simulations have higher reflectivity values distributed aloft than the observed values in both the convective and stratiform regions. Three-ice schemes produce more high reflectivity values in convective regions, while 2-ice schemes produce more high reflectivity values in stratiform regions. In addition, this study has demonstrated that the radar-based convective/stratiform partitioning algorithm can reasonably identify WRF-simulated precipitation, wind, and microphysical fields in both convective and stratiform regions.

snow↗

NASA NTRS2023

Importance of Ice Nucleation and Precipitation on Climate With the Parameterization of Unified Microphysics Across Scales Version 1 (PUMASv1)

Cloud microphysics is critical for weather and climate prediction. In this work, we document updates and corrections to the cloud microphysical scheme used in the Community Earth System Model (CESM) and other models. These updates include a new nomenclature for the scheme, now called Parameterization of Unified Microphysics Across Scales (PUMAS), and the ability to run the scheme on graphics processing units (GPUs). The main science changes include refactoring an ice number limiter and associated changes to ice nucleation, adding vapor deposition onto snow, and introducing an implicit numerical treatment for sedimentation. We also detail the improvements in computational performance that can be achieved with GPU acceleration. We then show the impact of these scheme changes on the (a) mean state climate, (b) cloud feedback response to warming, and (c) aerosol forcing. We find that corrections are needed to the immersion freezing parameterization and that ice nucleation has important impacts on climate. We also find that the revised scheme produces less cloud liquid and ice but that this can be adjusted by changing the loss process for cloud liquid (autoconversion). Furthermore, there are few discernible effects of the PUMAS changes on cloud feedbacks but some reductions in the magnitude of aerosol–cloud interactions (ACIs). Small cloud feedback changes appear to be related to the implicit sedimentation scheme, with a number of factors affecting ACIs.

Clouds↗

NASA NTRS1990

Cirrus microphysics and radiative transfer: A case study

During the Cirrus Intensive Field Operations of FIRE, data collected by the NCAR King Air in the vicinity of Wausau, WI on October 28 were selected to study the influence of cirrus cloud microphysics on radiative transfer and the role of microphysical approximations in radiative transfer models. The instrumentation of the King Air provided, aside from temperature and wind data, up-and downwelling broadband solar and infrared fluxes as well as detailed microphysical data. The aircraft data, supplied every second, are averaged over the 7 legs to represent the properties for that altitude. The resulting vertical profiles, however, suffer from the fact that each leg represents a different cloud column path. Based on the measured microphysical data particle size distributions of equivalent spheres for each cloud level are developed. Accurate radiative transfer calculations are performed, incorporating atmospheric and radiative data from the ground and the stratosphere. Comparing calculated to the measured up- and downwelling fluxes at the seven cloud levels for both the averaged and the three crossover data will help to assess the validity of particle size and shape approximation as they are frequently used to model cirrus clouds. Once agreement is achieved the model results may be applied to determine, in comparison to a cloudfree case, the influence of this particular cirrus on the radiation budget of the earth atmosphere system.

Kinne, Stefan A.↗

NASA NTRS1996

Stratospheric Heterogeneous Chemistry and Microphysics: Model Development, Validation and Applications

The objectives of this project are to: define the chemical and physical processes leading to stratospheric ozone change that involve polar stratospheric clouds (PSCS) and the reactions occurring on the surfaces of PSC particles; study the formation processes, and the physical and chemical properties of PSCS, that are relevant to atmospheric chemistry and to the interpretation of field measurements taken during polar stratosphere missions; develop quantitative models describing PSC microphysics and heterogeneous chemical processes; assimilate laboratory and field data into these models; and calculate the extent of chemical processing on PSCs and the impact of specific microphysical processes on polar composition and ozone depletion. During the course of the project, a new coupled microphysics/physical-chemistry/ photochemistry model for stratospheric sulfate aerosols and nitric acid and ice PSCs was developed and applied to analyze data collected during NASA's Arctic Airborne Stratospheric Expedition-II (AASE-II) and other missions. In this model, detailed treatments of multicomponent sulfate aerosol physical chemistry, sulfate aerosol microphysics, polar stratospheric cloud microphysics, PSC ice surface chemistry, as well as homogeneous gas-phase chemistry were included for the first time. In recent studies focusing on AASE measurements, the PSC model was used to analyze specific measurements from an aircraft deployment of an aerosol impactor, FSSP, and NO(y) detector. The calculated results are in excellent agreement with observations for particle volumes as well as NO(y) concentrations, thus confirming the importance of supercooled sulfate/nitrate droplets in PSC formation. The same model has been applied to perform a statistical study of PSC properties in the Northern Hemisphere using several hundred high-latitude air parcel trajectories obtained from Goddard. The rates of ozone depletion along trajectories with different meteorological histories are presently being systematically evaluated to identify the principal relationships between ozone loss and aerosol state. Under this project, we formulated a detailed quantitative model that predicts the multicomponent composition of sulfate aerosols under stratospheric conditions, including sulfuric, nitric, hydrochloric, hydrofluoric and hydrobromic acids. This work defined for the first time the behavior of liquid ternary-system type-1b PSCS. The model also allows the compositions and reactivities of sulfate aerosols to be calculated over the entire range of environmental conditions encountered in the stratosphere (and has been incorporated into a trajectory/microphysics model-see above). Important conclusions that derived from this work over the last few years include the following: the HNO3 content of liquid-state aerosols dominate PSCs below about 195 K; the freezing of nitric acid ice from sulfate aerosol solutions is likely to occur within a few degrees K of the water vapor frost point; the uptake and reactions of HCl in liquid aerosols is a critical component of PSC heterogeneous chemistry. In a related application of this work, the inefficiency of chlorine injection into the stratosphere during major volcanic eruptions was explained on the basis of nucleation of sulfuric acid aerosols in rising volcanic plumes leading to the formation of supercooled water droplets on these aerosols, which efficiently scavenges HCl via precipitation.

Turco, Richard P.↗

NASA NTRS1997

Cirrus Cloud Radiative and Microphysical Properties from Ground Observations and In Situ Measurements During FIRE 1991 and Their Application to Exhibit Problems in Cirrus Solar Radiative Transfer Modeling

Measurements from the FIRE 1991 cirrus cloud field experiment in the central United States are presented and analyzed. The first part focuses on cirrus microphysical properties. Aircraft 2D-probe in situ data at different cloud altitudes were evaluated for cirrus cases on four different days. Also presented are simultaneous data samples from balloonborne videosondes. Only these balloonsondes could detect the smaller crystals. Their data suggest (at least for midlatitude altitudes below 10 km) that ice crystals smaller than 15 microns in size are rare and that small ice crystals not detected by 2D-probe measurements are radiatively of minor importance, as overlooked 2D-probe crystals account for about 10% of the total extinction. The second part focuses on the link between cirrus cloud properties and radiation. With cloud macrophysical properties from surface remote sensing added to the microphysical data and additional radiation measurements at the surface, testbeds for radiative transfer models were created. To focus on scattering processes, model evaluations were limited to the solar radiative transfer by comparing calculated and measured transmissions of sunlight at the surface. Comparisons under cloud-free conditions already reveal a model bias of about +45 W/sq m for the hemispheric solar downward broadband flux. This discrepancy, which is (at least in part) difficult to explain, has to be accounted for in comparisons involving clouds. Comparisons under cirrus cloud conditions identify as the major obstacle in cirrus solar radiative transfer modeling the inability of one-dimensional radiative transfer models to account for horizontal inhomogeneities. The successful incorporation of multidimensional radiative transfer effects will depend not only on better models but critically on the ability to measure and to define characteristic inhomogeneity scales of cloud fields. The relative minor error related to the microphysical treatment is in part a reflection of the improved understanding on solar scattering on ice crystals over the last decade and of the available wealth on ice-crystal size and shape data for this study. In absence of this information, uncertainties from microphysical cirrus model assumptions will remain high.

Kinne, Stefan↗

NASA NTRS1999

The Dependence on Grid Resolution of Numerically Simulated Convective Cloud Systems Using Ice Microphysics

Mesoscale research and forecast models are increasingly being used at horizontal resolutions of 1-8 km to simulate a variety of precipitating systems. When the model is used to simulate convective systems, it is uncertain to what extent the dynamics and microphysics of convective updrafts can be resolved with grids larger than 1 km. In this study, two- and three-dimensional versions of the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model are used to determine the impact of horizontal grid resolution on the behavior of the simulated storms and on the characteristics of the cloud microphysical fields. It will be shown that as resolution decreases from about 1 km to greater than 3 km, there is a fairly rapid degradation of the storm structure in the form of reduced convective mass fluxes, updraft tilts, and cloud microphysics. A high-resolution simulation of hurricane outer rainbands using the MM5 mesoscale model shows also that there can be a substantial modification of the key microphysical processes that contribute to rainfall as a result of reducing the horizontal resolution.

Braun, Scott A.↗

NASA NTRS2001

Cloud Microphysics Budget in the Tropical Deep Convective Regime

Cloud microphysics budgets in the tropical deep convective regime are analyzed based on a 2-D cloud resolving simulation. The model is forced by the large-scale vertical velocity and zonal wind and large-scale horizontal advections derived from TOGA COARE for a 20-day period. The role of cloud microphysics is first examined by analyzing mass-weighted mean heat budget and column-integrated moisture budget. Hourly budgets show that local changes of mass-weighted mean temperature and column-integrated moisture are mainly determined by the residuals between vertical thermal advection and latent heat of condensation and between vertical moisture advection and condensation respectively. Thus, atmospheric thermodynamics depends on how cloud microphysical processes are parameterized. Cloud microphysics budgets are then analyzed for raining conditions. For cloud-vapor exchange between cloud system and its embedded environment, rainfall and evaporation of raindrop are compensated by the condensation and deposition of supersaturated vapor. Inside the cloud system, the condensation of supersaturated vapor balances conversion from cloud water to raindrop, snow, and graupel through collection and accretion processes. The deposition of supersaturated vapor balances conversion from cloud ice to snow through conversion and riming processes. The conversion and riming of cloud ice and the accretion of cloud water balance conversion from snow to graupel through accretion process. Finally, the collection of cloud water and the melting of graupel increase raindrop to compensate the loss of raindrop due to rainfall and the evaporation of raindrop.

Li, Xiao-Fan↗