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.

Ensemble Transform Kalman Filter (LETKF). In this study, the Efficient Modular VOlume RADar Operator is applied for the assimilation of radar reflectivity data to improve short-term predictions of precipitation. Both deterministic and ensemble forecasts have been carried out. A case-study shows that the assimilation of 3D radar reflectivity data clearly improves precipitation location in the analysis and significantly improves forecasts for lead times up to 4 h, as quantified by the Brier Score and the Continuous Ranked Probability Score. The influence of different update rates on the noise in terms of surface pressure tendencies and on the forecast quality in general is investigated. The results suggest that, while high update rates produce better analyses, forecasts with lead times of above 1 h benefit from less frequent updates. For a period of seven consecutive days, assimilation of radar reflectivity based on the LETKF is compared to that of DWD's current operational radar assimilation scheme based on latent heat nudging (LHN). It is found that the LETKF competes with LHN, although it is still in an experimental phase.

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[1] Results are presented from an intercomparison of atmospheric general circulation model (AGCM) simulations of tropical convection during the Tropical Warm Pool-International Cloud Experiment (TWP-ICE). The distinct cloud properties, precipitation, radiation, and vertical diabatic heating profiles associated with three different monsoon regimes (wet, dry, and break) from available observations are used to evaluate 9 AGCM forecasts initialized daily from realistic global analyses. All models captured well the evolution of large-scale circulation and thermodynamic fields, but cloud properties differed substantially among models. Compared with the relatively well simulated top-heavy heating structures during the wet and break period, most models had difficulty in depicting the bottom-heavy heating profiles associated with cumulus congestus during the dry period. The best performing models during this period were the ones whose convection scheme was most responsive to the free tropospheric humidity. Compared with the large impact of cloud and convective parameterizations on model cloud and precipitation characteristics, resolution has relatively minor impact on simulated cloud properties. However, one feature that was influenced by resolution in several models was the diurnal cycle of precipitation. Peaking at a different time from convective precipitation, large-scale precipitation generally increases in high resolution forecasts and modulates the total precipitation diurnal cycle. Overall, the study emphasizes the need for convection parameterizations that are more responsive to environmental conditions as well as the substantial diversity among large-scale cloud and precipitation schemes in current AGCMs. This experiment has demonstrated itself to be a very useful test bed for those developing cloud and convection schemes for AGCMs.