The sensitivity of intense rainfall to aerosol particle loading – a comparison of bin-resolved microphysics modelling with observations of heavy precipitation from HyMeX IOP7a

Kagkara, Christina; Wobrock, W.; Planche, Céline; Flossmann, Andrèa I.

doi:10.5194/nhess-20-1469-2020

Cited by 3 publications

(13 citation statements)

References 43 publications

(57 reference statements)

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“…Furthermore, they proposed a revision of the scheme LIMA based on the disdrometer rain PSD observations. The aerosol-cloud interactions were also found to have a strong impact on convective systems and rainfall characteristics (Kagkara et al, 2020), and the best simulation results with the 2-moment scheme LIMA are obtained when using a realistic aerosol population from the MACC analyses validated against ATR42 observations (Taufour et al, 2018).…”

Section: Microphysicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the Western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX

Khodayar¹,

Davolio²,

Girolamo³

et al. 2021

Preprint

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Abstract. Heavy precipitation (HP) constitutes a major meteorological threat in the western Mediterranean (WMed). Every year, recurrent events affect the area with fatal consequences on infrastructure and personal losses. Despite this being a well-known issue, widely investigated in the past, still open questions remain. Particularly, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms and the modelling representation of the events must be improved. One of the major goals of the Hydrological cYcle in the Mediterranean eXperiment (HyMeX; 2010–2020) has been to advance knowledge on this topic. In this article we present an overview of the most recent lessons learned from HyMeX towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to HP in the WMed. The unique network of instruments deployed, the use of finer model resolutions and of coupled models, provided an unprecedented opportunity to validate numerical model simulations, to develop improved parameterizations, designing high-resolution ensemble modelling approaches and sophisticated assimilation techniques across scales. All in all, HyMeX and particularly the science team heavy precipitation favoured the evidencing of theoretical results, the enrichment of our knowledge on the genesis and evolution of convection in a complex topography environment, and the improvement of precipitation forecasts. Illustratively, the intervention of cyclones and warm conveyor belts in the occurrence of heavy precipitation has been pointed out, the crucial role of the spatio-temporal distribution of the atmospheric water vapor for the understanding and accurate forecast of the timing and location of deep convection has been evidenced, as well as the complex interaction among processes across scales. The importance of soil and ocean conditions and the interactions among systems were highlighted and such systems were specifically developed in the framework of HyMeX to improve the realism of weather forecasts. Furthermore, the benefits of cross-disciplinary efforts within HyMeX have been a key asset in bringing a step forward our knowledge about heavy precipitation in the Mediterranean region.

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Section: Microphysicsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the Western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX

Khodayar¹,

Davolio²,

Girolamo³

et al. 2021

Preprint

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

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“…During the HyMeX SOP1, the LaMP (Laboratoire de Météorologie Physique) X-band radar was deployed for a few months within the Cévennes-Vivarais Mountains (Figure 1b). It is designed to provide the precipitation field with high spatial (60 m) and temporal (30 s) resolution over a typical domain of a small catchment basin (about 36 km range) using a beam elevation of 1.5 • [29,32]. Figure 2a,b show the radar reflectivity field observed by the X-band radar at different times that characterize the most intense period of the convective system over the radar observational area.…”

Section: The Hymex-iop7a (26 September 2012 Southern France)mentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The model also considers the aerosol particle activation and growth and the drop de-activation following the Köhler theory [13]. Note that this microphysics scheme allows the study of the impact of the aerosol particle loading on the intense rainfall of the HyMeX IOP7a event as in Reference [29].…”

Section: The Descam and Wrf Modelsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…In order to evaluate the quantitative forecast of the precipitation for the IOP7a convective cloud system, the different high-resolution simulation results are compared to the available HyMeX observations. For all experiments, the configuration of the numerical domains is the same as in the work of Kagkara et al [29]: it consists of three nested domains with an increasing horizontal resolution. The innermost domain is represented on Figure 1b.…”

Section: Simulation Strategymentioning

confidence: 99%

“…The paper is organised as follows-Section 2 provides a description of the case studied and its setup and configuration in the considered mesoscale models. Sections 3-6 compare the observations and mesoscale simulation results obtained with DESCAM using the bin microphysics scheme see Reference [29] for additional results and with WRF using two different bulk microphysics schemes [19,20] focusing on precipitation features, thermodynamic profiles, microphysics and dynamics properties. Additional sensitivity studies performed to understand the differences in the convective system simulated with both models are presented in Section 7.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Evaluation of Two Cloud-Resolving Models Using Bin or Bulk Microphysics Representation for the HyMeX-IOP7a Heavy Precipitation Event

et al. 2020

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The Mediterranean region is frequently affected in autumn by heavy precipitation that causes flash-floods or landslides leading to important material damage and casualties. Within the framework of the international HyMeX program (HYdrological cycle in Mediterranean EXperiment), this study aims to evaluate the capabilities of two models, WRF (Weather Research and Forecasting) and DESCAM (DEtailed SCAvenging Model), which use two different representations of the microphysics to reproduce the observed atmospheric properties (thermodynamics, wind fields, radar reflectivities and precipitation features) of the HyMeX-IOP7a intense precipitating event (26 September 2012). The DESCAM model, which uses a bin resolved representation of the microphysics, shows results comparable to the observations for the precipitation field at the surface. On the contrary, the simulations made with the WRF model using a bulk representation of the microphysics (either the Thompson scheme or the Morrison scheme), commonly employed in NWP models, reproduce neither the intensity nor the distribution of the observed precipitation—the rain amount is overestimated and the most intense cell is shifted to the East. The different simulation results show that the divergence in the surface precipitation features seems to be due to different mechanisms involved in the onset of the precipitating system: the convective system is triggered by the topography of the Cévennes mountains (i.e., south-eastern part of the Massif Central) in DESCAM and by a low-level flux convergence in WRF. A sensitivity study indicates that the microphysics properties have impacted the thermodynamics and dynamics fields inducing the low-level wind convergence simulated with WRF for this HyMeX event.

show abstract

Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX

et al. 2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Abstract. Heavy precipitation (HP) constitutes a major meteorological threat in the western Mediterranean (WMed). Every year, recurrent events affect the area with fatal consequences for infrastructure and personal losses. Despite this being a well-known issue widely investigated in the past, open questions still remain. Particularly, the understanding of the underlying mechanisms and the modeling representation of the events must be improved. One of the major goals of the Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX; 2010–2020) has been to advance knowledge on this topic. In this article, we present an overview of the most recent lessons learned from HyMeX towards an improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to HP in the WMed. The unique network of instruments deployed as well as the use of finer model resolutions and coupled models provided an unprecedented opportunity to validate numerical model simulations, develop improved parameterizations, and design high-resolution ensemble modeling approaches and sophisticated assimilation techniques across scales. All in all, HyMeX, and particularly the science team heavy precipitation, favored the evidencing of theoretical results, the enrichment of our knowledge on the genesis and evolution of convection in a complex topography environment, and the improvement of precipitation forecasts. Illustratively, the intervention of cyclones and warm conveyor belts in the occurrence of heavy precipitation has been pointed out, and the crucial role of the spatiotemporal distribution of atmospheric water vapor for the understanding and accurate forecast of the timing and location of deep convection has been evidenced, as has the complex interaction among processes across scales. The importance of soil and ocean conditions and the interactions among systems were highlighted, and such systems were specifically developed in the framework of HyMeX to improve the realism of weather forecasts. Furthermore, the benefits of cross-disciplinary efforts within HyMeX have been a key asset in bringing our knowledge about heavy precipitation in the Mediterranean region a step forward.

show abstract

The sensitivity of intense rainfall to aerosol particle loading – a comparison of bin-resolved microphysics modelling with observations of heavy precipitation from HyMeX IOP7a

Cited by 3 publications

References 43 publications

Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the Western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX

Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the Western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX

Evaluation of Two Cloud-Resolving Models Using Bin or Bulk Microphysics Representation for the HyMeX-IOP7a Heavy Precipitation Event

Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX

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