A review of cloud-resolving model studies of convective processes

Wu, Xiangqian; Li, Xiaofan

doi:10.1007/s00376-008-0202-6

Cited by 10 publications

(6 citation statements)

References 130 publications

(121 reference statements)

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“…Numerical simulations of hail storms at very high spatial resolution over limited spatial domains have been performed since the 1970s, using idealised cloud-resolving models (see Wu & Li, 2008), mostly with the aim of studying the physical processes and/or dynamical effects in different convective environments, rather than reproducing observed events to study their initiation or propagation. More recently, the convection permitting modelling approach has been used to simulate single hail storms, typically at horizontal resolutions of 1 or 2 km (e.g., García-Ortega et al, 2007;Leslie et al, 2008;Mahoney et al, 2012;Chevuturi et al, 2014), as has been done for this study.…”

Section: High-resolution Wrf Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A severe hail storm in complex topography in Switzerland - Observations and processes

Trefalt

Martynov

Barras

et al. 2018

Atmospheric Research

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This paper studies a damaging hail storm that occurred on 6 June 2015 in the complex topography of Switzerland. The storm persisted for several hours and produced large hail resulting in significant damage.Storms of comparable severity occur on average only three times per year within the entire Swiss radar domain, but are rare events at this exact location, according to a set of over 400,000 automatically identified storms. A multitude of datasets, partly novel for central Europe, is now available to study the storm in great detail capturing its impacts, severity and development. The data we use include radar-based hail products, crowd-sourced hail reports, and insurance loss data. These independent datasets permitted a verification of both hail occurrence and hail size estimations by radar. The crowd-sourced reports agree well with radar-based hail observations and insurance data. Model data (ERA-Interim reanalysis, regional COSMO-2 analysis and WRF simulations) and radio-sounding data showed, that conditions were favourable for thunderstorm development due to an unstable and moist atmosphere over Switzerland, brought about by an interplay of large-scale pattern and local processes. Advection ahead of a cold front west of Switzerland and local evapotranspiration lead to high lower-tropospheric moisture. The large-scale flow and topographically induced Alpine pumping resulted in strong directional wind shear, and contributed to the longevity and severity of this storm. The cold front was not relevant for the vertical lifting. Using model simulations with very high resolution, we identified mountain wind systems and cold-air outflow as possible triggering and propagation mechanisms of this hail storm.

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Section: High-resolution Wrf Simulationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

A severe hail storm in complex topography in Switzerland - Observations and processes

Trefalt

Martynov

Barras

et al. 2018

Atmospheric Research

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“…Convection-permitting models (CPMs) have been in use for several years producing operational weather forecasts especially by big meteorological centers (e.g., [27,28]). These systems have been found to improve rainfall forecasting skill compared to lower resolution models including over some parts of Africa (e.g., [29]).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Convection Parametrization and Multi-Nesting Dependence of a Heavy Rainfall Event over Namibia with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model

Somses¹,

Bopape

Ndarana

et al. 2020

Climate

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Namibia is considered to be one of the countries that are most vulnerable to climate change due to its generally dry climate and the percentage of its population that rely on subsistence agriculture for their livelihoods. Early-warning systems are an important aspect of adapting to climate change. Weather forecasting relies on the use of numerical weather prediction models and these need to be configured properly. In this study, we investigate the effects of using multi-nests and a convection scheme on the simulation of a heavy rainfall event over the north-western region of Kunene, Namibia. The event, which was associated with a cut-off low system, was short-lived and resulted in over 45 mm of rainfall in one hour. For the multi-nest, a 9 km grid-length parent domain is nested within the Global Forecast System (GFS) simulations, which in turn forces a 3 km grid spacing child domain. A different set of simulations are produced using a single nest of 3 km grid spacing, nested directly inside the GFS data. The simulations are produced with the convection scheme switched on and off. The impact of a single versus multi-nest is found to be small in general, with slight differences in the location of high rainfall intensity. Switching off the convection schemes results in high rainfall intensity and increased detail in the simulations, including when a grid spacing of 9 km is used. Using a grid spacing of 3 km with the convection scheme on, results in a loss of detail in the simulations as well as lower rainfall amounts. The study shows a need for different configurations to be tested before an optimum configuration can be selected for operational forecasting. We recommend further tests with different synoptic forcing and convection schemes to be conducted to identify a suitable configuration for Namibia.

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“…Clouds have profound impacts on the Earth's atmosphere. They shape the characteristics of aerosols and greenhouse gases and elucidate a number of mechanisms that affect global and regional climate (Bogenschutz et al., 2012; Wallace & Hobbs, 2006; Wu & Li, 2008). Cloud convection can transport gaseous and particulate matter from the boundary layer into the free troposphere, redistribute these constituents, and return them back to the surface through dry and wet deposition processes (Stocker et al., 2013).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Development and Implementation of a Physics‐Based Convective Mixing Scheme in the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling Framework

Pouyaei

Sadeghi

Choi

et al. 2021

J Adv Model Earth Syst

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To improve the representation of convective mixing of atmospheric pollutants in the presence of clouds, we developed a convection module based on Kain and Fritsch (KF) method and implemented it in the CMAQ (Community Multiscale Air Quality) model. The KF-convection method is a mass-flux-based model that accounts for updraft flux, downdraft flux, entrainment, detrainment, and the subsidence effect. The method is consistent with the convection parametrization of the meteorology model. We apply the KF-convection model to an idealized case and to a reference setup prepared for East Asia during the KORUS-AQ campaign period to investigate its impact on carbon monoxide (CO) concentration at various atmospheric altitudes. We investigate the impact of KF-convection on the horizontal distribution of CO concentrations by comparing it to aircraft measurements and the MOPITT CO column. We further discuss two types of impacts of KF-convection: the direct impact caused by vertical movement of CO concentrations by updraft or downdraft and the indirect impact caused by transport of lifted CO concentrations to another region. May 12 saw a high indirect impact originating from the Shanghai region at higher altitudes and a high direct impact of updraft fluxes at 1 km altitude. However, May 26 revealed an immense updraft increasing higher altitude concentrations (up to 40 ppbv) and diverse indirect impacts over the region of the study (±50 ppbv). The overall comparison shows a strong connection between differences in the amount of concentration caused by the direct impact at each altitude with the presence of an updraft at that altitude.The developed model can be employed in large domains (i.e., East Asia, Europe, North America, and Northern Hemisphere) with sub-grid scale cloud modeling to include the impacts of convection.

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A review of cloud-resolving model studies of convective processes

Cited by 10 publications

References 130 publications

A severe hail storm in complex topography in Switzerland - Observations and processes

A severe hail storm in complex topography in Switzerland - Observations and processes

Convection Parametrization and Multi-Nesting Dependence of a Heavy Rainfall Event over Namibia with Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model

Development and Implementation of a Physics‐Based Convective Mixing Scheme in the Community Multiscale Air Quality Modeling Framework

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