A21I-3137:
Bulk Hydrometeor Types of Mid-Latitude Convective Systems from Bin-Resolving Cloud Simulations and Dual-Polarimetric Scanning Radar Retrieval
Tuesday, 16 December 2014
Takamichi Iguchi1, Toshihisa Matsui2, Wei-Kuo Tao2, Brenda Dolan3 and Steven A Rutledge4, (1)NASA GSFC, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (2)NASA Goddard Space Flight Center, Greenbelt, MD, United States, (3)Colorado State University, Department of Atmospheric Science, Fort Collins, CO, United States, (4)Colorado State University, Fort Collins, CO, United States
Abstract:
Robust hydrometeor identification (HID) algorithm has emerged through the use of multi-wavelength polarimetric weather radars [Dolan et al. 2013]. This presentation provides a simple yet useful method to evaluate simulated hydrometeor profiles against the polarimetric radar-retrieved HID data in the specific case study of the Mid-latitude Continental Convective Cloud Experiment (MC3E). The MC3E is the joint NASA-DOE-funded field campaign over the DOE Southern Great Plains (SGP) site, Oklahoma, USA in Spring 2011. We focus on the April 25 case, which observed a strong deep convective system propagating over the SGP site. Colorado State University (CSU) multi-wavelength HID algorithm revealed instantaneous HID profiles and also time-integrated HID diagram separately for shallow, deep stratiform, and deep convective columns. These retrievals are used to evaluate the Weather Research Forecasting model with Spectra-Bin Microphysics (WRF-SBM) [Iguchi et al. 2013]. For this, we have developed a simple emulator of the CSU HID algorithm to consider similar hydrometeor assumptions between the WRF-SBM and CSU HID algorithm. Initial evaluation appears to be reasonable in profiles of shallow and deep stratiform columns between WRF-SBM and CSU HID retrievals, while there is apparent discrepancy in deep convective columns, which is further related to an intuitive assumption in the CSU HID algorithm. Finally feasibility and uncertainties of this approach are discussed.
