Abstract. Three configurations of a bulk microphysics scheme in conjunction with a detailed bin scheme are implemented in the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model to specifically address the role of the saturation adjustment assumption (i.e., condensing/evaporating the surplus/deficit water vapor relative to saturation in one time step) on aerosol-induced invigoration of deep convective clouds. The bulk model configurations are designed to treat cloud droplet condensation/evaporation using either saturation adjustment, as employed in most bulk models, or an explicit representation of supersaturation over a time step, as used in bin models. Results demonstrate that the use of saturation adjustment artificially enhances condensation and latent heating at low levels and limits the potential for an increase in aerosol concentration to increase buoyancy at mid to upper levels. This leads to a small weakening of the time-and domain-averaged convective mass flux (∼ −3 %) in polluted compared to clean conditions. In contrast, the bin model and bulk scheme with explicit prediction of supersaturation simulate an increase in latent heating aloft and the convective updraft mass flux is weakly invigorated (∼5 %). The bin model also produces a large increase in domainmean cumulative surface precipitation in polluted conditions (∼18 %), while all of the bulk model configurations simulate little change in precipitation. Finally, it is shown that the cold pool weakens substantially with increased aerosol loading when saturation adjustment is applied, which acts to reduce the low-level convergence and weaken the convective dynamics. With an explicit treatment of supersaturation in the bulk and bin models there is little change in cold pool strength, so that the convective response to polluted conditions is influenced more by changes in latent heating aloft. It is concluded that the use of saturation adjustment can explain differences in the response of cold pool evolution and convective dynamics with aerosol loading simulated by the bulk and bin models, but cannot explain large differences in the response of surface precipitation between these models.

Abstract. The potential effects of increased aerosol loading on the development of deep convective clouds and resulting precipitation amounts are studied by employing the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model as a detailed high-resolution cloud resolving model (CRM) with both detailed bulk and bin microphysics schemes. Both models include a physically-based activation scheme that incorporates a size-resolved aerosol population. We demonstrate that the aerosol-induced effect is controlled by the balance between latent heating and the increase in condensed water aloft, each having opposing effects on buoyancy. It is also shown that under polluted conditions, increases in the CCN number concentration reduce the cumulative precipitation due to the competition between the sedimentation and evaporation/sublimation timescales. The effect of an increase in the IN number concentration on the dynamics of deep convective clouds is small and the resulting decrease in domain-averaged cumulative precipitation is shown not to be statistically significant, but may act to suppress precipitation. It is also shown that even in the presence of a decrease in the domain-averaged cumulative precipitation, an increase in the precipitation variance, or in other words, andincrease in rainfall intensity, may be expected in more polluted environments, especially in moist environments.A significant difference exists between the predictions based on the bin and bulk microphysics schemes of precipitation and the influence of aerosol perturbations on updraft velocity within the convective core. The bulk microphysics scheme shows little change in the latent heating rates due to an increase in the CCN number concentration, while the bin microphysics scheme demonstrates significant increases Correspondence to: Z. J. Lebo (zachlebo@caltech.edu) in the latent heating aloft with increasing CCN number concentration. This suggests that even a detailed two-bulk microphysics scheme, coupled to a detailed activation scheme, may not be sufficient to predict small changes that result from perturbations in aerosol loading.

The sensitivity of an idealized squall line to horizontal D h and vertical D y grid spacing is investigated using a new approach. Simulations are first performed at a horizontal grid spacing of 1 km until the storm reaches its mature stage. The model output is then interpolated to smaller (and larger) grid spacings, and the model is restarted using the interpolated state plus small thermodynamic perturbations to spin up small-scale motions. This framework allows an investigation of the sensitivity of the storm to changes in D h without complications from differences in storm initiation and early evolution. The restarted simulations reach a quasi steady state within approximately 1 h. Results demonstrate that there are two D h -dependent regimes with the transition between regimes occurring for D h between 250 and 500 m. Some storm characteristics, such as the mean convective core area, change substantially for D h . 250 m but show limited sensitivity as D h is decreased below 250 m, despite better resolving smaller-scale turbulent motions. This transition is found to be independent of the chosen D y . Mixing in the context of varying D h and D y is also investigated via passive tracers that are initialized 1 h after restarting the simulations (i.e., after the spin up of small-scale motions). The tracer field at the end of the simulations reveals that entrainment and detrainment are suppressed in the simulations with D h $ 500 m. For decreasing D h , entrainment and detrainment are substantially more important, limiting the flux of low-level tracer to the upper troposphere, which has important implications for modeling studies of convective transport from the boundary layer through the troposphere.

The squall-line event on 20 May 2011, during the Midlatitude Continental Convective Clouds (MC3E) field campaign has been simulated by three bin (spectral) microphysics schemes coupled into the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. Semi-idealized three-dimensional simulations driven by temperature and moisture profiles acquired by a radiosonde released in the preconvection environment at 1200 UTC in Morris, Oklahoma, show that each scheme produced a squall line with features broadly consistent with the observed storm characteristics. However, substantial differences in the details of the simulated dynamic and thermodynamic structure are evident. These differences are attributed to different algorithms and numerical representations of microphysical processes, assumptions of the hydrometeor processes and properties, especially ice particle mass, density, and terminal velocity relationships with size, and the resulting interactions between the microphysics, cold pool, and dynamics. This study shows that different bin microphysics schemes, designed to be conceptually more realistic and thus arguably more accurate than bulk microphysics schemes, still simulate a wide spread of microphysical, thermodynamic, and dynamic characteristics of a squall line, qualitatively similar to the spread of squall-line characteristics using various bulk schemes. Future work may focus on improving the representation of ice particle properties in bin schemes to reduce this uncertainty and using the similar assumptions for all schemes to isolate the impact of physics from numerics.

This study investigates droplet size distribution (DSD) characteristics from condensational growth and transport in Eulerian dynamical models with bin microphysics. A hierarchy of modeling frameworks is utilized, including parcel, one-dimensional (1D), and three-dimensional large-eddy simulation (LES). The bin DSDs from the 1D model, which includes only vertical advection and condensational growth, are nearly as broad as those from the LES and in line with observed DSD widths for stratocumulus clouds. These DSDs are much broader than those from Lagrangian microphysical calculations within a parcel framework that serve as a numerical benchmark for the 1D tests. In contrast, the bin-modeled DSDs are similar to the Lagrangian microphysical benchmark for a rising parcel in which Eulerian transport is not considered. These results indicate that numerical diffusion associated with vertical advection is a key contributor to broadening DSDs in the 1D model and LES. This DSD broadening from vertical numerical diffusion is unphysical, in contrast to the physical mixing processes that previous studies have indicated broaden DSDs in real clouds. It is proposed that artificial DSD broadening from vertical numerical diffusion compensates for underrepresented horizontal variability and mixing of different droplet populations in typical LES configurations with bin microphysics, or the neglect of other mechanisms that broaden DSDs such as growth of giant cloud condensation nuclei. These results call into question the ability of Eulerian dynamical models with bin microphysics to investigate the physical mechanisms for DSD broadening, even though they may reasonably simulate overall DSD characteristics.

The dynamical effects of increased aerosol loading on the strength and structure of numerically simulated squall lines are explored. Results are explained in the context of Rotunno–Klemp–Weisman (RKW) theory. Changes in aerosol loading lead to changes in raindrop size and number that ultimately affect the strength of the cold pool via changes in evaporation. Thus, the balance between cold pool and low-level wind shear–induced vorticities can be changed by an aerosol perturbation. Simulations covering a wide range of low-level wind shears are performed to study the sensitivity to aerosols in different environments and provide more general conclusions. Simulations with relatively weak low-level environmental wind shear (0.0024 s−1) have a relatively strong cold pool circulation compared to the environmental shear. An increase in aerosol loading leads to a weakening of the cold pool and, hence, a more optimal balance between the cold pool– and environmental shear–induced circulations according to RKW theory. Consequently, there is an increase in the convective mass flux of nearly 20% in polluted conditions relative to pristine. This strengthening coincides with more upright convective updrafts and a significant increase (nearly 20%) in cumulative precipitation. An increase in aerosol loading in a strong wind shear environment (0.0064 s−1) leads to less optimal storms and a suppression of the convective mass flux and precipitation. This occurs because the cold pool circulation is weak relative to the environmental shear when the shear is strong, and further weakening of the cold pool with high aerosol loading leads to an even less optimal storm structure (i.e., convective updrafts begin to tilt downshear).

Abstract. Three-dimensional large-eddy simulations (LES) with detailed bin-resolved microphysics are performed to explore the diurnal variation of marine stratocumulus (MSc) clouds under clean and polluted conditions. The sensitivity of the aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions to variation of sea surface temperature, free tropospheric humidity, largescale divergence rate, and wind speed is assessed. The comprehensive set of simulations corroborates previous studies that (1) with moderate/heavy drizzle, an increase in aerosol leads to an increase in cloud thickness; and (2) with non/light drizzle, an increase in aerosol results in a thinner cloud, due to the pronounced effect on entrainment. It is shown that for higher SST, stronger large-scale divergence, drier free troposphere, or lower wind speed, the cloud thins and precipitation decreases. The sign and magnitude of the Twomey effect, droplet dispersion effect, cloud thickness effect, and cloud optical depth susceptibility to aerosol perturbations (i.e., change in cloud optical depth to change in aerosol number concentration) are evaluated by LES experiments and compared with analytical formulations. The Twomey effect emerges as dominant in total cloud optical depth susceptibility to aerosol perturbations. The dispersion effect, that of aerosol perturbations on the cloud droplet size spectrum, is positive (i.e., increase in aerosol leads to spectral narrowing) and accounts for 3 % to 10 % of the total cloud optical depth susceptibility at nighttime, with greater influence in heavier drizzling clouds. The cloud thickness effect is negative (i.e., increase in aerosol leads to thinner cloud) for non/light drizzling cloud and positive for a moderate/heavy drizzling clouds; the cloud thickness effect contributes 5 % to 22 % Correspondence to: J. H. Seinfeld (seinfeld@caltech.edu) of the nighttime total cloud susceptibility. Overall, the total cloud optical depth susceptibility ranges from ∼0.28 to 0.53 at night; an increase in aerosol concentration enhances cloud optical depth, especially with heavier precipitation and in a more pristine environment. During the daytime, the range of magnitude for each effect is more variable owing to cloud thinning and decoupling. The good agreement between LES experiments and analytical formulations suggests that the latter may be useful in evaluations of the total cloud susceptibility. The ratio of the magnitude of the cloud thickness effect to that of the Twomey effect depends on cloud base height and cloud thickness in unperturbed (clean) clouds.

The potential effects of increased aerosol loading on the development of deep convective clouds and resulting precipitation amounts are studied by employing the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model as a detailed high-resolution cloud resolving model (CRM) with both detailed bulk and bin microphysics schemes. The bulk microphysics scheme incorporates a physically based parameterization of cloud droplet activation as well as homogeneous and heterogeneous freezing in order to explicitly resolve the possible aerosol-induced effects on the cloud microphysics. These parameterizations allow one to segregate the effects of an increase in the aerosol number concentration into enhanced cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) and/or ice nuclei (IN) concentrations using bulk microphysics. The bin microphysics scheme, with its explicit calculations of cloud particle collisions, is shown to better predict cumulative precipitation. Increases in the CCN number concentration may not have a monotonic influence on the cumulative precipitation resulting from deep convective clouds. We demonstrate that the aerosol-induced effect is controlled by the balance between latent heating and the increase in condensed water aloft, each having opposing effects on buoyancy. It is also shown that under polluted conditions and in relatively dry environments, increases in the CCN number concentration reduce the cumulative precipitation due to the competition between the sedimentation and evaporation/sublimation timescales. The effect of an increase in the IN number concentration on the dynamics of deep convective clouds is small, but may act to suppress precipitation. <br><br> A comparison of the predictions using the bin and bulk microphysics schemes demonstrate a significant difference between the predicted precipitation and the influence of aerosol perturbations on updraft velocity within the convective core. The bulk microphysics scheme is shown to be unable to capture the changes in latent heating that occur as a result of changes in the CCN number concentration, while the bin microphysics scheme demonstrates significant increases in the latent heating aloft with increasing CCN number concentration. This suggests that a detailed two-bulk microphysics scheme, which is more computationally efficient than bin microphysics schemes, may not be sufficient, even when coupled to a detailed activation scheme, to predict small changes that result from perturbations in aerosol loading