Insights from preliminary modeling and observational evaluation of a precipitating continental cumulus event observed during the MC3E field campaign
Authors
Scott Giangrande — Brookhaven National Laboratory
David B. Mechem — University of Kansas
Paloma Borque — Pacific Northwest National Laboratory
Pavlos Kollias — Stony Brook University
Category
Cloud Properties
Description
A case of extensive precipitating cumulus congestus sampled during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E) field campaign is analyzed using a multi-sensor observational approach and numerical simulation. Emphasis is on the ARM Southern Great Plains (SGP) scanning ARM cloud radar (SACR) and Ka-band ARM zenith radar (KAZR) platforms to characterize the statistical behavior of the precipitating cloud system consulting the evolving distributions of radar reflectivity, Doppler velocity, and different measures of cloud geometry. Large-eddy simulation with size-resolved (bin) microphysics is employed to characterize the forcing most important in producing the salient aspects of the cloud system captured in the radar observations. In particular, we address the importance of time-varying versus steady-state large-scale forcing and the sensitivity of model-derived radar quantities to the assumed aerosol distribution used in the model.
