Idealized Simulations of a Squall Line from the MC3E Field Campaign Applying Three Bin Microphysics Schemes: Dynamic and Thermodynamic Structure
Abstract
The squall-line event on 20 May 2011, during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds (MC3E) field campaign has been simulated by three bin (spectral) microphysics schemes coupled into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. Semi-idealized three-dimensional simulations driven by temperature and moisture profiles acquired by a radiosonde released in the preconvection environment at 1200 UTC in Morris, Oklahoma, show that each scheme produced a squall line with features broadly consistent with the observed storm characteristics. However, substantial differences in the details of the simulated dynamic and thermodynamic structure are evident. These differences are attributed to different algorithms and numerical representations of microphysical processes, assumptions of the hydrometeor processes and properties, especially ice particle mass, density, and terminal velocity relationships with size, and the resulting interactions between the microphysics, cold pool, and dynamics. This study shows that different bin microphysics schemes, designed to be conceptually more realistic and thus arguably more accurate than bulk microphysics schemes, still simulate a wide spread of microphysical, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a squall line, qualitatively similar to the spread of squall-line characteristics using various bulk schemes. Future work may focus on improving the representation of ice particle properties in bin schemes to reduce thismore »
- Authors:
-
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado
- Pacific Northwest National Laboratory, Richland, Washington
- University of Wyoming, Laramie, Wyoming
- National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado, University of Illinois at Urbana–Champaign, Urbana, Illinois
- University of Pécs, Pécs, Hungary
- McGill University, Montréal, Québec, Canada
- University of North Dakota, Grand Forks, North Dakota
- Chinese Academy of Meteorological Sciences, Beijing, China
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Univ. of Oklahoma, Norman, OK (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF); National Natural Science Foundation of China (NSFC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1410593
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1594795
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC0008648; SC0014065; 41275148; SC0016476; AC06-76RLO1830; AC06-76RL01830
- Resource Type:
- Published Article
- Journal Name:
- Monthly Weather Review
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Name: Monthly Weather Review Journal Volume: 145 Journal Issue: 12; Journal ID: ISSN 0027-0644
- Publisher:
- American Meteorological Society
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES; dynamics; squall lines; cloud microphysics; thermodynamics
Citation Formats
Xue, Lulin, Fan, Jiwen, Lebo, Zachary J., Wu, Wei, Morrison, Hugh, Grabowski, Wojciech W., Chu, Xia, Geresdi, István, North, Kirk, Stenz, Ronald, Gao, Yang, Lou, Xiaofeng, Bansemer, Aaron, Heymsfield, Andrew J., McFarquhar, Greg M., and Rasmussen, Roy M. Idealized Simulations of a Squall Line from the MC3E Field Campaign Applying Three Bin Microphysics Schemes: Dynamic and Thermodynamic Structure. United States: N. p., 2017.
Web. doi:10.1175/MWR-D-16-0385.1.
Xue, Lulin, Fan, Jiwen, Lebo, Zachary J., Wu, Wei, Morrison, Hugh, Grabowski, Wojciech W., Chu, Xia, Geresdi, István, North, Kirk, Stenz, Ronald, Gao, Yang, Lou, Xiaofeng, Bansemer, Aaron, Heymsfield, Andrew J., McFarquhar, Greg M., & Rasmussen, Roy M. Idealized Simulations of a Squall Line from the MC3E Field Campaign Applying Three Bin Microphysics Schemes: Dynamic and Thermodynamic Structure. United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-16-0385.1
Xue, Lulin, Fan, Jiwen, Lebo, Zachary J., Wu, Wei, Morrison, Hugh, Grabowski, Wojciech W., Chu, Xia, Geresdi, István, North, Kirk, Stenz, Ronald, Gao, Yang, Lou, Xiaofeng, Bansemer, Aaron, Heymsfield, Andrew J., McFarquhar, Greg M., and Rasmussen, Roy M. Fri .
"Idealized Simulations of a Squall Line from the MC3E Field Campaign Applying Three Bin Microphysics Schemes: Dynamic and Thermodynamic Structure". United States. https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-16-0385.1.
@article{osti_1410593,
title = {Idealized Simulations of a Squall Line from the MC3E Field Campaign Applying Three Bin Microphysics Schemes: Dynamic and Thermodynamic Structure},
author = {Xue, Lulin and Fan, Jiwen and Lebo, Zachary J. and Wu, Wei and Morrison, Hugh and Grabowski, Wojciech W. and Chu, Xia and Geresdi, István and North, Kirk and Stenz, Ronald and Gao, Yang and Lou, Xiaofeng and Bansemer, Aaron and Heymsfield, Andrew J. and McFarquhar, Greg M. and Rasmussen, Roy M.},
abstractNote = {The squall-line event on 20 May 2011, during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds (MC3E) field campaign has been simulated by three bin (spectral) microphysics schemes coupled into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. Semi-idealized three-dimensional simulations driven by temperature and moisture profiles acquired by a radiosonde released in the preconvection environment at 1200 UTC in Morris, Oklahoma, show that each scheme produced a squall line with features broadly consistent with the observed storm characteristics. However, substantial differences in the details of the simulated dynamic and thermodynamic structure are evident. These differences are attributed to different algorithms and numerical representations of microphysical processes, assumptions of the hydrometeor processes and properties, especially ice particle mass, density, and terminal velocity relationships with size, and the resulting interactions between the microphysics, cold pool, and dynamics. This study shows that different bin microphysics schemes, designed to be conceptually more realistic and thus arguably more accurate than bulk microphysics schemes, still simulate a wide spread of microphysical, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a squall line, qualitatively similar to the spread of squall-line characteristics using various bulk schemes. Future work may focus on improving the representation of ice particle properties in bin schemes to reduce this uncertainty and using the similar assumptions for all schemes to isolate the impact of physics from numerics.},
doi = {10.1175/MWR-D-16-0385.1},
journal = {Monthly Weather Review},
number = 12,
volume = 145,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2017},
month = {Fri Dec 01 00:00:00 EST 2017}
}
https://doi.org/10.1175/MWR-D-16-0385.1
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