Evaluation of microphysical schemes with radar data and high-resolution numerical simulations of MC3E mesoscale deep convective systems

Description

In this study, we evaluate the relative performance of double-moment and single-moment microphysical schemes in high-resolution (~ 1 km) numerical simulations with major MC3E mesoscale convective systems (MCSs), radar observations, and radar-derived cloud classification. We use the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model and evaluate three microphysical schemes—WRF single-moment 6-class (WSM6), WRF double-moment 6-class (WDM6), and Morrison double moment (MORR)—in numerical simulations of MCSs. Compared with radar observations and UND radar-derived cloud classification (by Dong et al.), the MORR scheme performs best in terms of accurate simulations of MCSs and comparison with the cloud classification data products. Specifically, WSM6 and WDM6 both produce too many convective clouds and fewer transitional anvils, whereas MORR generates more reasonable results. In addition, MORR produces more ice-phase hydrometeors (ice, snow, and graupel), which bring the 3-D radar reflectivity structures closer to observations. At the same time, WSM6 and WDM6 produce too few ice-phase hydrometeors. The overall evaluation indicates that ice-phase processes are important in the evolution of MCSs, especially in the sustainability of stratiform and anvil clouds.