Comparison of ice-phase microphysical parameterization schemes using numerical simulations of tropical convection

Abstract

The inclusion of ice processes enhances the agreement of the simulated convection with some features of observed convection, including the proportion of surface rainfall in the anvil region, and the intensity and structure of the radar brightband near the melting level in the anvil. The use of three ice classes produces better results than two ice classes or ice-free conditions, and for the tropical cumuli, the optimal mix of the bulk ice hydrometeors is cloud ice-snow-graupel. We infer from our modeling results that application of bulk ice microphysics in cloud models might be case specific, which is a significant limitation. Generalization of ice processes may require a larger number of ice categories than we have evaluated and/or the prediction of hydrometeor concentrations or particle-size spectra. -from Authors