Evaluation of Subgrid-Scale Hydrometeor Transport Schemes Using a High-Resolution Cloud-Resolving Model

• Published in: Journal of the atmospheric sciences Vol. 72; no. 9; pp. 3715 - 3731
• Main Authors: Wong, May, Ovchinnikov, Mikhail, Wang, Minghuai
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Boston American Meteorological Society 01.09.2015
• Subjects: Approximation; Benchmarks; Cloud water; Clouds; Computer simulation; Convection; Correlation; Decomposition; Diffusion; Distribution; Fluxes; Graupel; High resolution; Hydrometeor types; Hydrometeors; Ice; Meteorology; Microphysics; Parameterization; Parametrization; Precipitation; Probability density function; Probability density functions; Probability theory; Quadrants; Radiation; Rain; Scaling; Sensitivity; Simulation; Snow; Storms; Transport; Turbulent fluxes; Velocity; Vertical advection; Vertical distribution; Vertical profiles; Vortices
• DOI: 10.1175/JAS-D-15-0060.1
• ISSN: 0022-4928

Potential ways of parameterizing vertical turbulent fluxes of hydrometeors are examined using a high-resolution simulation of continental deep convection. The cloud-resolving model uses a double-moment microphysics scheme that contains prognostic variables for four hydrometeor types: rain, graupel, cloud ice, and snow. The benchmark simulation with a horizontal grid spacing of 250 m is analyzed to evaluate three different ways of parameterizing the turbulent vertical fluxes of hydrometeors: an eddy-diffusion approximation, a quadrant-based decomposition, and a scaling method that accounts for within-quadrant (subplume) correlations. Results show that the downgradient nature of the eddy-diffusion approximation enforces transport of mass away from concentrated regions, whereas the benchmark simulation indicates that the vertical transport often moves mass from below the level of maximum concentration to aloft. Unlike the eddy-diffusion approach, the quadrimodal decomposition is able to capture the signs of the flux gradient but underestimates the magnitudes. The scaling approach, which accounts empirically for within-quadrant correlations, improves the representation of the vertical fluxes for all hydrometeors except snow. A sensitivity study is performed to illustrate how vertical transport effects on the vertical distribution of hydrometeors are compounded by accompanying changes in microphysical process rates. Results from the sensitivity tests show that suppressing rain or graupel transport drastically alters vertical profiles of cloud ice and snow through changes in the distribution of cloud water, which in turn governs the production of cloud ice and snow aloft. Last, a viable subgrid-scale hydrometeor transport scheme in an assumed probability density function parameterization is discussed.