Comments on “Parameterization of Convective Precipitation in Mesoscale Numerical Models: A Critical Review”

Zhang, Dalin; Kain, John S.; Fritsch, J. Michael; Gao, Kun

doi:10.1175/1520-0493(1994)122<2222:coocpi>2.0.co;2

Cited by 35 publications

(27 citation statements)

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“…As a parameterized convective scheme is used in conjunction with a prognostic explicit one, the development of moist convection differs from that with an explicit scheme due to the stabilization effect of a parameterized one (see Zhang et al, 1994). In this study, the vertical motion of moist convection simulated by the semi-explicit scheme at the first peak has almost one-fourth of the intensity of that by the prognostic explicit one (see Figs.…”

Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Hydrostatic and Non-Hydrostatic Simulations of Moist Convection

Kato¹,

Saitō²

1995

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

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Comparative experiments of moist convection using hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic models are performed to study the suitability of the hydrostatic approximation for a high-resolution model when the grid size falls below 20km. The moist convection in the models is treated by the use of an explicit warmrain process predicting cloud water and rainwater as well as by a semi-explicit scheme consisting of the warm-rain process and moist convective adjustment. The differences between the experiments with and without hydrostatic water loading are also examined and quantitatively compared with those between the hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic simulations.When the prognostic explicit scheme is used, the hydrostatic simulation overdevelops moist convection, overestimates the total amount of precipitation, and overexpands the area of precipitation as the grid size decreases. This overdevelopment alters substantially the structure of moist convection and precipitation patterns. The absence of hydrostatic water loading also alters the total amount and structure of precipitation. Hydrostatic water loading exerts more significant influences on simulated precipitation than the hydrostatic approximation. In the 20-km simulations, the hydrostatic simulation with hydrostatic water loading produces results that are comparable to the non-hydrostatic counterpart.The difference in the total amount of precipitation between the hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic simulations was not as large as that of the convective development. This can be explained by considering the total water budget, which includes simulated precipitation and water vapor flux through the lateral boundaries, i, e., the water-vapor flux in the hydrostatic simulation corresponds to that in the non-hydrostatic one.Although moist convective adjustment removes conditional instability and does not produce strong updrafts, the characteristics of the results in the comparative experiments of moist convection using hydrostatic and non-hydrostatic models were hardly changed by the incorporation of moist convective adjustment (the semi-explicit scheme). On the other hand, hydrostatic water loading exerts more significant influences on simulated precipitation with the semi-explicit scheme than that with the prognostic explicit scheme. Therefore, in developing 10-20km numerical weather prediction models, hydrostatic water loading should be evaluated in preference to adopting non-hydrostatic models.

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Section: Resultsmentioning

confidence: 70%

Hydrostatic and Non-Hydrostatic Simulations of Moist Convection

Kato¹,

Saitō²

1995

Journal of the Meteorological Society of Japan

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“…In our view, a CPS is still needed for RCMs with 3-5 km horizontal resolutions, because they could not resolve even the largest supercell storms of about 6-10 km, especially the associated intense updrafts at the scales of 1-2 km. We conducted the same run as EX_4, but without a CPS for a short period of integration, and found the development of NPSs similar to those discussed by Zhang et al [1988], Molinari and Dudek [1992], and Zhang et al [1994]. This finding implies that upward motion developed on the 4 × 4 km 2 grid box still could not remove potential instability fast enough to prevent the development of a conditional instability of the second kind.…”

Section: Model Description and Experiments Designmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Moreover, more localized rainfall occurs in lower-resolution runs (e.g., Figures 4g, 4k, and 4l). These results imply further the importance of the interaction of parameterized and grid-scale convective processes in treating convectively unstable columns and in reproducing the observed heavy rainfall [see Zhang et al, 1994;Bélair and Mailhot, 2001].…”

Section: Rainfallmentioning

confidence: 59%

“…Of significance is that the grid-scale precipitation accounts for a large portion of the total rainfall in all the runs because of the continuous mesoscale ascent of moist monsoonal flows over the Meiyu front. It is well known that, as the grid size increases, the grid-scale precipitation should decrease because some of the associated physics processes (e.g., updrafts and downdrafts) become subgrid-scale phenomena and are treated implicitly by CPSs [Zhang et al, 1988[Zhang et al, , 1994Bélair and Mailhot, 2001]. Indeed, Figures 4a, 4e, 4i, 4b, 4f, and 4j indicate that the parameterized (grid-scale) rainfall does increase (decrease) during the first rainy phase as the horizontal resolution decreases from EX_4 to EX_12 and EX_36.…”

Section: Rainfallmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Impact of horizontal resolution on the regional climate simulations of the summer 1998 extreme rainfall along the Yangtze River Basin

Liu¹,

Zhang²,

Wang³

2010

J. Geophys. Res.

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[1] In this study, the effects of varying horizontal grid resolutions on the regional climate model (RCM) simulation of the summer 1998 extreme rainfall events along the middle to lower reaches of the Yangtze-River Basin (YRB-ML) are examined using the Pennsylvania State University-National Center for Atmospheric Research mesoscale model (i.e., MM5). Results show that the MM5 simulation with the finest grid size of 4 km reproduces reasonably well the rainfall intensity and rainbelt distribution over the YRB-ML during all the Meiyu phases, whereas lower-resolution simulations tend to shift the east-west-oriented major rainbelt southwestward as a result of the generated local storms and excessive rainfall during the second Meiyu rainy phase in which vertical (horizontal) wind shears are weak (strong). The excessive rainfall occurs during the evening hours when the low-level jet is relatively strong and in the Meiyu frontal zone where convergence of warm and moist air is pronounced. Results reveal the importance of incorporating convective parameterizations in removing potential instability in heavy rain-producing storms even for RCMs with 3-5 km horizontal resolutions. It is highly desirable to use higher-resolution models with realistic parameterized and grid-scale cloud physics schemes to study the regional climate of heavy rainfall events.

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“…At a grid spacing of 0.448, convection is not resolved explicitly and must be parameterized in the convective parameterization schemes (CPSs). It is well known (e.g., Zhang et al 1994) that the CPS scheme chosen will be at least as important as the microphysics scheme selected. There are several reports published on the sensitivity of WRF to the choice of CPS (Molinari and Dudek 1992;Wang and Seaman 1997;Mercader et al 2010).…”

Section: B Parameterization Schemes-configurationsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Evaluation of the Sensitivity of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model to Parameterization Schemes for Regional Climates of Europe over the Period 1990–95

2013

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The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) is used to downscale interim ECMWF Re-Analysis (ERA-Interim) data for the climate over Europe for the period 1990-95 with grid spacing of 0.448 for 12 combinations of physical parameterizations. Two longwave radiation schemes, two land surface models (LSMs), two microphysics schemes, and two planetary boundary layer (PBL) schemes have been investigated while the remaining physics schemes were unchanged. WRF simulations are compared with Ensemble-Based Predictions of Climate Changes and their Impacts (ENSEMBLES) observations gridded dataset (E-OBS) for surface air temperatures (T2), precipitation, and mean sea level pressure (MSLP) in eight subregions within the model domain to assess the performance of the different parameterizations on widely varying regional climates. This work shows that T2 is modeled well by WRF with high correlation coefficients (0.8 , R , 0.95) and biases less than 48C. T2 shows greatest sensitivity to land surface models, some sensitivity to longwave radiation schemes, and less sensitivity to microphysics and PBL schemes. Precipitation is not well modeled by WRF with low correlation coefficients (0.1 , R , 0.3) and high root-mean-square differences (RMSDs; 8-9 mm day 21 ). Precipitation shows sensitivity to LSMs in summer. No significant bias has been observed in the MSLP modeled by WRF. Correlation coefficients are typically in the range 0.7 , R , 0.8 while RMSDs are in the range 6-10 hPa. MSLP output is sensitive to longwave radiation scheme in summer but is relatively insensitive to either microphysics or the choice of LSM. The optimum combination of parameterizations for all three state variables examined is strongly dependent on subregion and demonstrates the need to carefully select parameterization combinations when attempting to use WRF as a regional climate model.

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Comments on “Parameterization of Convective Precipitation in Mesoscale Numerical Models: A Critical Review”

Cited by 35 publications

References 0 publications

Hydrostatic and Non-Hydrostatic Simulations of Moist Convection

Hydrostatic and Non-Hydrostatic Simulations of Moist Convection

Impact of horizontal resolution on the regional climate simulations of the summer 1998 extreme rainfall along the Yangtze River Basin

Evaluation of the Sensitivity of the Weather Research and Forecasting Model to Parameterization Schemes for Regional Climates of Europe over the Period 1990–95

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