Insights from modeling and observational evaluation of a precipitating continental cumulus event observed during the MC3E field campaign
Abstract
Abstract A case of shallow cumulus and precipitating cumulus congestus sampled at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Southern Great Plains supersite during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment is analyzed using a multisensor observational approach and numerical simulation. Observations from a new radar suite surrounding the facility are used to characterize the evolving statistical behavior of the precipitating cloud system. This is accomplished using distributions of different measures of cloud geometry and precipitation properties. Large‐eddy simulation (LES) with size‐resolved (bin) microphysics is employed to determine the forcings most important in producing the salient aspects of the cloud system captured in the radar observations. Our emphasis is on assessing the importance of time‐varying versus steady state large‐scale forcing on the model's ability to reproduce the evolutionary behavior of the cloud system. Additional consideration is given to how the characteristic spatial scale and homogeneity of the forcing imposed on the simulation influences the evolution of cloud system properties. Results indicate that several new scanning radar estimates such as distributions of cloud top are useful to differentiate the value of time‐varying (or at least temporally well‐matched) forcing on LES solution fidelity.
- Authors:
-
- Univ. of Kansas, Lawrence, KS (United States)
- Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- McGill Univ., Montreal, QC (Canada)
- Publication Date:
- Research Org.:
- Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
- Sponsoring Org.:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC)
- OSTI Identifier:
- 1201353
- Alternate Identifier(s):
- OSTI ID: 1402354
- Report Number(s):
- BNL-108017-2015-JA
Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X; R&D Project: 2016-BNL-EE630EECA-Budg; KP1701000
- Grant/Contract Number:
- SC00112704
- Resource Type:
- Accepted Manuscript
- Journal Name:
- Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres
- Additional Journal Information:
- Journal Volume: 120; Journal Issue: 5; Journal ID: ISSN 2169-897X
- Publisher:
- American Geophysical Union
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
- Subject:
- 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
Citation Formats
Mechem, David B., Giangrande, Scott E., Wittman, Carly S., Borque, Paloma, Toto, Tami, and Kollias, Pavlos. Insights from modeling and observational evaluation of a precipitating continental cumulus event observed during the MC3E field campaign. United States: N. p., 2015.
Web. doi:10.1002/2014JD022255.
Mechem, David B., Giangrande, Scott E., Wittman, Carly S., Borque, Paloma, Toto, Tami, & Kollias, Pavlos. Insights from modeling and observational evaluation of a precipitating continental cumulus event observed during the MC3E field campaign. United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022255
Mechem, David B., Giangrande, Scott E., Wittman, Carly S., Borque, Paloma, Toto, Tami, and Kollias, Pavlos. Fri .
"Insights from modeling and observational evaluation of a precipitating continental cumulus event observed during the MC3E field campaign". United States. https://doi.org/10.1002/2014JD022255. https://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1201353.
@article{osti_1201353,
title = {Insights from modeling and observational evaluation of a precipitating continental cumulus event observed during the MC3E field campaign},
author = {Mechem, David B. and Giangrande, Scott E. and Wittman, Carly S. and Borque, Paloma and Toto, Tami and Kollias, Pavlos},
abstractNote = {Abstract A case of shallow cumulus and precipitating cumulus congestus sampled at the Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Southern Great Plains supersite during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment is analyzed using a multisensor observational approach and numerical simulation. Observations from a new radar suite surrounding the facility are used to characterize the evolving statistical behavior of the precipitating cloud system. This is accomplished using distributions of different measures of cloud geometry and precipitation properties. Large‐eddy simulation (LES) with size‐resolved (bin) microphysics is employed to determine the forcings most important in producing the salient aspects of the cloud system captured in the radar observations. Our emphasis is on assessing the importance of time‐varying versus steady state large‐scale forcing on the model's ability to reproduce the evolutionary behavior of the cloud system. Additional consideration is given to how the characteristic spatial scale and homogeneity of the forcing imposed on the simulation influences the evolution of cloud system properties. Results indicate that several new scanning radar estimates such as distributions of cloud top are useful to differentiate the value of time‐varying (or at least temporally well‐matched) forcing on LES solution fidelity.},
doi = {10.1002/2014JD022255},
journal = {Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres},
number = 5,
volume = 120,
place = {United States},
year = {Fri Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2015},
month = {Fri Mar 13 00:00:00 EDT 2015}
}
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