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Comparison of Eulerian Bin and Lagrangian Particle-Based Microphysics in Simulations of Nonprecipitating Cumulus

Journal Article · · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
 [1]
  1. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States). Mesoscale and Microscale Meteorology Lab.; National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
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A single nonprecipitating cumulus congestus setup is applied to compare droplet spectra grown by the diffusion of water vapor in Eulerian bin and particle-based Lagrangian microphysics schemes. Bin microphysics represent droplet spectral evolution applying the spectral density function. In the Lagrangian microphysics, computational particles referred to as superdroplets are followed in time and space with each superdroplet representing a multiplicity of natural cloud droplets. The same cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activation and identical representation of the droplet diffusional growth allow the comparison. The piggybacking method is used with the two schemes operating in a single simulation, one scheme driving the dynamics and the other one piggybacking the simulated flow. Piggybacking allows point-by-point comparison of droplet spectra predicted by the two schemes. Overall, the results show the impact of inherent limitations of the two microphysics simulation methods, numerical diffusion in the Eulerian scheme and a limited number of superdroplets in the Lagrangian scheme. Numerical diffusion in the Eulerian scheme results in a more dilution of the cloud upper half and thus smaller cloud droplet mean radius. The Lagrangian scheme typically has larger spatial fluctuations of droplet spectral properties. A significantly larger mean spectral width in the bin microphysics across the entire cloud depth is the largest difference between the two schemes. A fourfold increase of the number of superdroplets per grid volume and a twofold increase of the spectral resolution and thus the number of bins have small impact on the results and provide only minor changes to the comparison between simulated cloud properties.

Research Organization:
University Corporation for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0016476
OSTI ID:
1852245
Journal Information:
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Journal Name: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Journal Issue: 11 Vol. 77; ISSN 0022-4928
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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Related Subjects

37 INORGANIC, ORGANIC, PHYSICAL, AND ANALYTICAL CHEMISTRY
Cloud droplets
Cloud microphysics
Cumulus clouds
Meteorology & Atmospheric Sciences