Identification

Title

Aerosol effects on idealized supercell thunderstorms in different environments

Abstract

Idealized supercell thunderstorms are simulated with the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model at 15 cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations (100-10 000 cm⁻³) using four environmental soundings with different low-level relative humidity (RH) and vertical wind shear values. The Morrison microphysics scheme is used with explicit prediction of cloud droplet number concentration and a variable shape parameter for the raindrop size distribution (results from simulations with a fixed shape parameter are also presented). Changes in the microphysical process rates with CCN concentration are negligible beyond CCN ≈ 3000 cm⁻³. Changes in cold pool characteristics with CCN concentration are nonmonotonic and highly dependent on the environmental conditions. In moist conditions with moderate vertical wind shear, the cold pool area is nearly constant with respect to CCN concentration, while the area is reduced by 84% and 22% in the soundings with dry RH and large vertical wind shear, respectively. With the exception of the dry RH sounding, domain-averaged precipitation peaks between 500 and 5000 cm⁻³, after which it remains constant or slowly decreases. For the dry RH sounding, the domain-averaged precipitation monotonically decreases with CCN concentration. Accumulated precipitation is enhanced (by up to 25 mm) in the most polluted cases near the updrafts, except for the dry RH sounding. The different responses for moist and dry soundings are mostly due to increased (decreased) low-level latent cooling from melting hail (evaporating rain) with increasing CCN concentration in the moist soundings. This compensating effect does not exist when the low-level RH is dry.

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document

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http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d7736rxt

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eng

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geoscientificInformation

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publication

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2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

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publication

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2014-12-01T00:00:00Z

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Copyright 2014 American Meteorological Society (AMS). Permission to use figures, tables, and brief excerpts from this work in scientific and educational works is hereby granted provided that the source is acknowledged. Any use of material in this work that is determined to be "fair use" under Section 107 or that satisfies the conditions specified in Section 108 of the U.S. Copyright Law (17 USC, as revised by P.L. 94-553) does not require the Society's permission. Republication, systematic reproduction, posting in electronic form on servers, or other uses of this material, except as exempted by the above statements, requires written permission or license from the AMS. Additional details are provided in the AMS Copyright Policies, available from the AMS at 617-227-2425 or amspubs@ametsoc.org. Permission to place a copy of this work on this server has been provided by the AMS. The AMS does not guarantee that the copy provided here is an accurate copy of the published work.

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OpenSky Support

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UCAR/NCAR - Library

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PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

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opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

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