skip to main content
OSTI.GOV title logo U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information

Title: Microphysical Sensitivity of Superparameterized Precipitation Extremes in the Contiguous United States Due to Feedbacks on Large-Scale Circulation

Journal Article · · Earth and Space Science
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2019ea000731· OSTI ID:1756333
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3]; ORCiD logo [4]
  1. Univ. of California, Berkeley, CA (United States); Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  2. Univ. of California, Irvine, CA (United States)
  3. Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
  4. Indiana Univ., Bloomington, IN (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

Superparameterized (SP) global climate models have been shown to better simulate various features of precipitation relative to conventional models, including its diurnal cycle as well as its extremes. While various studies have focused on the effect of differing microphysics parameterizations on precipitation within limited-area cloud-resolving models, we examine here the effect on contiguous U.S. (CONUS) extremes in a global SP model. We vary the number of predicted moments for hydrometeor distributions, the character of the rimed ice species, and the representation of raindrop self-collection and breakup. Using a likelihood ratio test and accounting for the effects of multiple hypothesis testing, we find that there are some regional differences, particularly during spring and summer in the Southwest and the Midwest, in both the current climate and a warmer climate with uniformly increased sea surface temperatures. These differences are most statistically significant and widespread when the number of moments is changed. To determine whether these results are due to (fast) local effects of the different microphysics or the (slower) ensuing feedback on the large-scale atmospheric circulation, we run a series of short, 5-day simulations initialized from reanalysis data. We find that the differences largely disappear in these runs and therefore infer that the different parameterizations impact precipitation extremes indirectly via the large-scale circulation. Finally, we compare the present-day results with hourly rain gauge data and find that SP underestimates extremes relative to observations regardless of which microphysics scheme is used given a fixed model configuration and resolution.

Research Organization:
Lawrence Berkeley National Lab. (LBNL), Berkeley, CA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC02-05CH11231
OSTI ID:
1756333
Journal Information:
Earth and Space Science, Vol. 7, Issue 7; ISSN 2333-5084
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (48)

Statistical Inference Using Extreme Order Statistics journal January 1975
Structure of the Madden–Julian Oscillation in the Superparameterized CAM journal November 2009
The Frequency of Extreme Rain Events in Satellite Rain-Rate Estimates and an Atmospheric General Circulation Model journal January 2007
Investigation of Microphysical Processes Occurring in Organized Convection during NAME journal July 2012
A New Double-Moment Microphysics Parameterization for Application in Cloud and Climate Models. Part I: Description journal June 2005
Sensitivity of Idealized Squall-Line Simulations to the Level of Complexity Used in Two-Moment Bulk Microphysics Schemes journal June 2012
Sensitivity of climate simulations to the parameterization of cumulus convection in the Canadian climate centre general circulation model journal September 1995
An updated parameterization for infrared emission and absorption by water vapor in the National Center for Atmospheric Research Community Atmosphere Model journal January 2002
Potential impacts of a warming climate on water availability in snow-dominated regions journal November 2005
A Dynamic and Thermodynamic Foundation for Modeling the Moist Atmosphere with Parameterized Microphysics journal August 2001
A Multimoment Bulk Microphysics Parameterization. Part I: Analysis of the Role of the Spectral Shape Parameter journal September 2005
Diagnosing conditional anthropogenic contributions to heavy Colorado rainfall in September 2013 journal September 2017
“The Stippling Shows Statistically Significant Grid Points”: How Research Results are Routinely Overstated and Overinterpreted, and What to Do about It journal December 2016
Simulations of the Atmospheric General Circulation Using a Cloud-Resolving Model as a Superparameterization of Physical Processes journal July 2005
Modeling of Cloud Microphysics: Can We Do Better? journal April 2019
Fitting Microphysical Observations of Nonsteady Convective Clouds to a Numerical Model: An Application of the Adjoint Technique of Data Assimilation to a Kinematic Model journal October 1993
Anthropogenic greenhouse gas contribution to flood risk in England and Wales in autumn 2000 journal February 2011
“Super-parameterization”: A better way to simulate regional extreme precipitation?: SUPER PARAMETERIZATION FOR EXTREME PRECIPITATION SIMULATIONS journal February 2012
The Community Earth System Model: A Framework for Collaborative Research journal September 2013
Insensitivity of the Cloud Response to Surface Warming Under Radical Changes to Boundary Layer Turbulence and Cloud Microphysics: Results From the Ultraparameterized CAM journal December 2018
On the Sensitivity of Atmospheric Ensembles to Cloud Microphysics in Long-Term Cloud-Resolving Model Simulations journal January 2008
Large-eddy simulation of maritime deep tropical convection journal December 2009
The two-dimensional Poisson process and extremal processes journal December 1971
Radiative forcing by long-lived greenhouse gases: Calculations with the AER radiative transfer models journal January 2008
A gcss model intercomparison for a tropical squall line observed during toga-coare. I: Cloud-resolving models journal April 2000
Sensitivity of a Simulated Squall Line to Horizontal Resolution and Parameterization of Microphysics journal January 2012
The Distribution of Raindrops with size journal August 1948
Precipitation Characteristics in Eighteen Coupled Climate Models journal September 2006
The frequency distribution of the annual maximum (or minimum) values of meteorological elements journal April 1955
Cloud microphysics, radiation and vertical velocities in two- and three-dimensional simulations of deep convection journal October 2006
The super-droplet method for the numerical simulation of clouds and precipitation: a particle-based and probabilistic microphysics model coupled with a non-hydrostatic model journal July 2009
Rainfall From Resolved Rather Than Parameterized Processes Better Represents the Present‐Day and Climate Change Response of Moderate Rates in the Community Atmosphere Model journal April 2018
The Life Cycle of a Thunderstorm in Three Dimensions journal September 1974
A cloud resolving model as a cloud parameterization in the NCAR Community Climate System Model: Preliminary results journal September 2001
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Reanalysis journal August 2010
Make It a Double? Sobering Results from Simulations Using Single-Moment Microphysics Schemes journal February 2015
The Large-Sample Distribution of the Likelihood Ratio for Testing Composite Hypotheses journal March 1938
Resolution dependence of precipitation statistical fidelity in hindcast simulations: ILIAD SIMULATIONS OF PRECIPITATION journal June 2016
Robust effects of cloud superparameterization on simulated daily rainfall intensity statistics across multiple versions of the C ommunity E arth S ystem M odel journal February 2016
Prognostic Power of Extreme Rainfall Scaling Formulas Across Space and Time Scales journal December 2018
Influence of microphysics on the scaling of precipitation extremes with temperature journal August 2014
Limiting forms of the frequency distribution of the largest or smallest member of a sample journal April 1928
Structure and Evolution of Mesoscale Convective Systems: Sensitivity to Cloud Microphysics in Convection‐Permitting Simulations Over the United States journal July 2018
A multimodel intercomparison of resolution effects on precipitation: simulations and theory journal February 2016
Controlling the False Discovery Rate: A Practical and Powerful Approach to Multiple Testing journal January 1995
Simulations of the West African Monsoon with a Superparameterized Climate Model. Part II: African Easterly Waves journal November 2014
The NCEP Climate Forecast System Version 2 journal March 2014
Toward low-cloud-permitting cloud superparameterization with explicit boundary layer turbulence: LOW-CLOUD ULTRAPARAMETERIZATION journal July 2017

Similar Records

Global Microphysical Sensitivity of Superparameterized Precipitation Extremes
Journal Article · Fri May 07 00:00:00 EDT 2021 · Earth and Space Science · OSTI ID:1756333
+1 more
Sensitivity of summer ensembles of fledgling superparameterized U.S. mesoscale convective systems to cloud resolving model microphysics and grid configuration
Journal Article · Sun May 01 00:00:00 EDT 2016 · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems · OSTI ID:1756333
+3 more
Parameterizations of Cloud Microphysics and Indirect Aerosol Effects
Technical Report · Mon May 19 00:00:00 EDT 2014 · OSTI ID:1756333

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
extreme precipitation
superparameterization
microphysics
Community Atmosphere Model
ILIAD
Climate Prediction Center Hourly Precipitation Dataset