Large-eddy simulations (LES) with the newThis is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. R. Heinze et al.at building confidence in the model's ability to simulate small-to mesoscale variability in turbulence, clouds and precipitation. The results are encouraging: the high-resolution model matches the observed variability much better at small-to mesoscales than the coarser resolved reference model. In its highest grid resolution, the simulated turbulence profiles are realistic and column water vapour matches the observed temporal variability at short time-scales. Despite being somewhat too large and too frequent, small cumulus clouds are well represented in comparison with satellite data, as is the shape of the cloud size spectrum. Variability of cloud water matches the satellite observations much better in ICON than in the reference model. In this sense, it is concluded that the model is fit for the purpose of using its output for parametrization development, despite the potential to improve further some important aspects of processes that are also parametrized in the high-resolution model.

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The performance of the laser-optical Particle Size Velocity (PARSIVEL) disdrometer is evaluated to determine the characteristics of falling snow. PARSIVEL's measuring principle is reexamined to detect its limitations and pitfalls when applied to solid precipitation. This study uses snow observations taken during the Canadian Cloudsat/Cloud-Aerosol Lidar and Infrared Pathfinder Satellite Observation (CALIPSO) Validation Project (C3VP) campaign, when two PARSIVEL instruments were collocated with a single twodimensional disdrometer (2-DVD), which allows more detailed observation of snowflakes. When characterizing the snowflake size, PARSIVEL instruments inherently retrieve only one size parameter, which is approximately equal to the widest horizontal dimension (more accurately with large snowflakes) and that has no microphysical meaning. Unlike for raindrops, the equivolume PARSIVEL diameter-the PARSIVEL output variable-has no physical counterpart for snowflakes.PARSIVEL's fall velocity measurement may not be accurate for a single snowflake particle. This is due to the internally assumed relationship between horizontal and vertical snow particle dimensions. The uncertainty originates from the shape-related factor, which tends to depart more and more from unity with increasing snowflake sizes and can produce large errors. When averaging over a large number of snowflakes, the correction factor is size dependent with a systematic tendency to an underestimation of the fall speed (but never exceeding 20%).Compared to a collocated 2-DVD for long-lasting events, PARSIVEL seems to overestimate the number of small snowflakes and large particles. The disagreement between PARSIVEL and 2-DVD snow measurements can only be partly ascribed to PARSIVEL intrinsic limitations (border effects and sizing problems), but it has to deal with the difficulties and drawbacks of both instruments in fully characterizing snow properties.

[1] We present the results of a unique, parallel scaling study using a 3-D variably saturated flow problem including land surface processes that ranges from a single processor to a maximum number of 16,384 processors. In the applied finite difference framework and for a fixed problem size per processor, this results in a maximum number of approximately 8 × 10 9 grid cells (unknowns). Detailed timing information shows that the applied simulation platform ParFlow exhibits excellent parallel efficiency. This study demonstrates that regional scale hydrologic simulations on the order of 10 3 km 2 are feasible at hydrologic resolution (∼10 0 -10 1 m laterally, 10-10 −1 m vertically) with reasonable computation times, which has been previously assumed to be an intractable computational problem.

Daily rain gauge data over Europe for the period from 1950 to 2009 were used to analyze changes in the duration of wet and dry spells. The duration of wet spells exhibits a statistically significant growth over northern Europe and central European Russia, which is especially pronounced in winter when the mean duration of wet periods increased by 15%–20%. In summer wet spells become shorter over Scandinavia and northern Russia. The duration of dry spells decreases over Scandinavia and southern Europe in both winter and summer. For the discrimination between the roles of a changing number of wet days and of a regrouping of wet and dry days for the duration of the period, the authors suggest a fractional truncated geometric distribution. The changing numbers of wet days cannot explain the long-term variability in the duration of wet and dry periods. The observed changes are mainly due to the regrouping of wet and dry days. The tendencies in duration of wet and dry spells have been analyzed for a number of European areas. Over the Netherlands both wet and dry periods are extended in length during the cold and the warm season. A simultaneous shortening of wet and dry periods is found in southern Scandinavia in summer. Over France and central southern Europe during both winter and summer and over the Scandinavian Atlantic coast in summer, opposite tendencies in the duration of wet and dry spells were identified. Potential mechanisms that might be responsible for the changing durations of wet and dry periods and further perspectives are discussed.