Identification

Title

Using radar reflectivity to evaluate the vertical structure of forecast convection

Abstract

Several months of regional convection-permitting forecasts using two microphysical schemes (WSM6 and Thompson) are evaluated to determine the accuracy of the simulated convective structure and convective depth and the impact of microphysical scheme on simulated convective properties and biases. Forecasts are evaluated by using concepts from object-based approaches to compare the three-dimensional simulated reflectivity field with the reflectivity field as observed by radar. Results from analysis of both schemes reveals that forecasts generally perform well near the surface but differ considerably aloft both from observations and from each other. Forecasts are found to contain too many convective cores that are individually larger than in the observations, with at least double the number of observed convective cores reaching the midtroposphere (i.e., 4-8 km). Although the number of cores is overpredicted, WSM6 cores typically contain lower simulated reflectivity values than the observations, and the regions of highest reflectivity values do not extend far enough vertically. Conversely, Thompson cores are found to have significantly higher reflectivity values within cores, with the strongest intensities extending higher than in the observations and having magnitudes higher than any observed cores. Forecast reflectivity distributions within convective cells are found to contain more spread than in the observations. The study also assessed the uncertainty in simulated reflectivity calculations by using a second commonly utilized method to calculate simulated reflectivity. The sensitivity analysis reveals that the primary conclusions with each method are similar but the variability generated by using different simulated reflectivity calculations can be as pronounced as when using different microphysical schemes.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7f192pq

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2018-12-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact