Identification

Title

Microphysical processes producing high ice water contents (HIWCs) in tropical convective clouds during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign: evaluation of simulations using bulk microphysical schemes

Abstract

Regions with high ice water content (HIWC), composed of mainly small ice crystals, frequently occur over convective clouds in the tropics. Such regions can have median mass diameters (MMDs) < 300 mu m and equivalent radar reflectivities < 20 dBZ. To explore formation mechanisms for these HIWCs, high-resolution simulations of tropical convective clouds observed on 26 May 2015 during the High Altitude Ice Crystals - High IceWater Content (HAICHIWC) international field campaign based out of Cayenne, French Guiana, are conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with four different bulk microphysics schemes: the WRF single-moment 6-class microphysics scheme (WSM6), the Morrison scheme, and the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) scheme with one- and twoice options. The simulations are evaluated against data from airborne radar and multiple cloud microphysics probes installed on the French Falcon 20 and Canadian National Research Council (NRC) Convair 580 sampling clouds at different heights. WRF simulations with different microphysics schemes generally reproduce the vertical profiles of temper- ature, dew-point temperature, and winds during this event compared with radiosonde data, and the coverage and evolution of this tropical convective system compared to satellite retrievals. All of the simulations overestimate the intensity and spatial extent of radar reflectivity by over 30% above the melting layer compared to the airborne X-band radar reflectivity data. They also miss the peak of the observed ice number distribution function for 0.1 < D-max < 1 mm. Even though the P3 scheme has a very different approach representing ice, it does not produce greatly different total condensed water content or better comparison to other observations in this tropical convective system. Mixed-phase microphysical processes at -10 degrees C are associated with the overprediction of liquid water content in the simulations with the Morrison and P3 schemes. The ice water content at -10 degrees C increases mainly due to the collection of liquid water by ice particles, which does not increase ice particle number but increases the mass/size of ice particles and contributes to greater simulated radar reflectivity.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7mw2mj2

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

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code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

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keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

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reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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East bounding longitude

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date type

publication

effective date

2021-05-06T00:00:00Z

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Conformity

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Use constraints

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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

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