Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons
In this study the Weather Research Forecast model is used with 1-km horizontal grid spacing to investigate the microphysical properties of Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus. Intensive measurements taken during the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud...
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Language: | English |
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American Meteorological Society
2009
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Online Access: | http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-465 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 |
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ftncar:oai:drupal-site.org:articles_15394 2023-09-05T13:17:08+02:00 Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons Solomon, Amy (author) Morrison, Hugh (author) Persson, Ola (author) Shupe, Matthew (author) Bao, Jian-Wen (author) 2009-09-01 application/pdf http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-465 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 en eng American Meteorological Society Monthly Weather Review http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-465 doi:10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 ark:/85065/d7h41sgb Copyright 2009 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work. Cloud parameterizations Model evaluation Text article 2009 ftncar https://doi.org/10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 2023-08-14T18:42:02Z In this study the Weather Research Forecast model is used with 1-km horizontal grid spacing to investigate the microphysical properties of Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus. Intensive measurements taken during the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) on the North Slope of Alaska, during 9-12 October 2004, are used to verify the microphysical characteristics of the model’s simulation of mixed-phase clouds (MPCs). A series of one- and two-moment bulk microphysical cloud schemes are tested to identify how the treatment of snow and ice affects the maintenance of cloud liquid water at low temperatures. The baseline two-moment simulation results in realistic liquid water paths and in size distributions of snow reasonably similar to observations. With a one-moment simulation for which the size distribution intercept parameter for snow is fixed at values taken from the two-moment simulation, reasonable snow size distributions are again obtained but the cloud liquid water is reduced because the one-moment scheme couples the number concentration to the mixing ratio. The one-moment scheme with the constant snow intercept parameter set to a value typical of midlatitude frontal clouds results in a substantial underprediction of the liquid water path. In the simulations, the number concentration of small ice crystals is found to be underestimated by an order of magnitude. A sensitivity test with the concentration of ice particles larger than 53 μm increased to the observed value results in underprediction of the liquid water path. If ice (not snow) is the primary driver for the depletion of cloud liquid water, then the results of this study suggest that the feedbacks among ice-snow-cloud liquid water may be misrepresented in the model. OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2011 Article in Journal/Newspaper Arctic north slope Alaska OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) Arctic Monthly Weather Review 137 9 3110 3128 |
institution |
Open Polar |
collection |
OpenSky (NCAR/UCAR - National Center for Atmospheric Research/University Corporation for Atmospheric Research) |
op_collection_id |
ftncar |
language |
English |
topic |
Cloud parameterizations Model evaluation |
spellingShingle |
Cloud parameterizations Model evaluation Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons |
topic_facet |
Cloud parameterizations Model evaluation |
description |
In this study the Weather Research Forecast model is used with 1-km horizontal grid spacing to investigate the microphysical properties of Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus. Intensive measurements taken during the Department of Energy Atmospheric Radiation Measurement Program Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (M-PACE) on the North Slope of Alaska, during 9-12 October 2004, are used to verify the microphysical characteristics of the model’s simulation of mixed-phase clouds (MPCs). A series of one- and two-moment bulk microphysical cloud schemes are tested to identify how the treatment of snow and ice affects the maintenance of cloud liquid water at low temperatures. The baseline two-moment simulation results in realistic liquid water paths and in size distributions of snow reasonably similar to observations. With a one-moment simulation for which the size distribution intercept parameter for snow is fixed at values taken from the two-moment simulation, reasonable snow size distributions are again obtained but the cloud liquid water is reduced because the one-moment scheme couples the number concentration to the mixing ratio. The one-moment scheme with the constant snow intercept parameter set to a value typical of midlatitude frontal clouds results in a substantial underprediction of the liquid water path. In the simulations, the number concentration of small ice crystals is found to be underestimated by an order of magnitude. A sensitivity test with the concentration of ice particles larger than 53 μm increased to the observed value results in underprediction of the liquid water path. If ice (not snow) is the primary driver for the depletion of cloud liquid water, then the results of this study suggest that the feedbacks among ice-snow-cloud liquid water may be misrepresented in the model. OAR Outstanding Scientific Paper Award, National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA), 2011 |
author2 |
Solomon, Amy (author) Morrison, Hugh (author) Persson, Ola (author) Shupe, Matthew (author) Bao, Jian-Wen (author) |
format |
Article in Journal/Newspaper |
title |
Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons |
title_short |
Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons |
title_full |
Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons |
title_fullStr |
Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons |
title_full_unstemmed |
Investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in Arctic clouds during M-PACE through model-observation comparisons |
title_sort |
investigation of microphysical parameterizations of snow and ice in arctic clouds during m-pace through model-observation comparisons |
publisher |
American Meteorological Society |
publishDate |
2009 |
url |
http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-465 https://doi.org/10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic north slope Alaska |
genre_facet |
Arctic north slope Alaska |
op_relation |
Monthly Weather Review http://nldr.library.ucar.edu/repository/collections/OSGC-000-000-002-465 doi:10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 ark:/85065/d7h41sgb |
op_rights |
Copyright 2009 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work. |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/2009MWR2688.1 |
container_title |
Monthly Weather Review |
container_volume |
137 |
container_issue |
9 |
container_start_page |
3110 |
op_container_end_page |
3128 |
_version_ |
1776198428977528832 |