MC3E studies of deep convection updraft and outflow microphysics: NU-WRF with bin and bulk microphysics versus observations
Authors
NASA GSFC — NASA GSFC
Xiquan Dong — University of Arizona
Greg McFarquhar — University of Oklahoma
Ann M. Fridlind — NASA - Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Andrew Ackerman — NASA - Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Xiaowen Li — University of Maryland, Baltimore County
Alexander Ryzhkov — NOAA - National Severe Storms Laboratory
Di Wu — NASA
Jingyu Wang —
Wei Wu — University of Oklahoma
Marcus van Lier-Walqui — Columbia University
Category
CAPI Deep Convective Clouds
Description
Aerosol particle size distribution and hygroscopicity properties derived from ground-based H-TDMA data two hours prior to the beginning of rain events observed during MC3E.
The 2011 MC3E campaign over Oklahoma provided extensive ground-based and in situ measurements of aerosol size distribution and hygroscopicity fields colocated with remote-sensing, in situ and ground-based measurements of hydrometeor and storm properties. Based on an observational survey of Kdp, Z, and Zdr variously from KVNX and C-SAPR polarimetric scanning radars, lightning flash rates derived from the New Mexico Tech LMA array, and rain rates retrieved from C-SAPR, we find day-to-day and within-storm covariabilty of fields sensitive to updraft microphysics over 4/25, 5/20, 5/23, and 5/24 observations. In NU-WRF simulations of the only case with extensive stratiform rain (5/20), with two-moment microphysics, we examine the influence of observation-based interactive aerosol fields on simulated updraft and outflow microphysics. We compare outflow hydrometeor properties with Citation in situ measurements between 6 and 8 km in stratiform rain columns, within the context of underlying precipitation rate from polarimetric retrievals and simulations. In NU-WRF simulations of the 4/25 and 5/23 cases, with bin microphysics, we examine the properties of forward-simulated Kdp, vertical wind speed and rain mixing ratio fields, in comparison with observations and retrievals obtained from KVNX and C-SAPR. Here we establish whether Kdp serves as a useful proxy for rain mixing ratio to constrain simulated updraft spacing statistics using the observations.
