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Charn, Alexander B., Collins, William D. 
ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-4463-9848, Parishani, Hossein, Risser, Mark D. and O'Brien, Travis A.
(2020)
Microphysical Sensitivity of Superparameterized Precipitation Extremes in the Contiguous United States Due to Feedbacks on Large-Scale Circulation.
Earth and Space Science, 7 (7).
ISSN 2333-5084
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Abstract
Superparameterized (SP) global climate models have been shown to better simulate various features of precipitation relative to conventional models, including its diurnal cycle as well as its extremes. While various studies have focused on the effect of differing microphysics parameterizations on precipitation within limited-area cloud-resolving models, we examine here the effect on contiguous U.S. (CONUS) extremes in a global SP model. We vary the number of predicted moments for hydrometeor distributions, the character of the rimed ice species, and the representation of raindrop self-collection and breakup. Using a likelihood ratio test and accounting for the effects of multiple hypothesis testing, we find that there are some regional differences, particularly during spring and summer in the Southwest and the Midwest, in both the current climate and a warmer climate with uniformly increased sea surface temperatures. These differences are most statistically significant and widespread when the number of moments is changed. To determine whether these results are due to (fast) local effects of the different microphysics or the (slower) ensuing feedback on the large-scale atmospheric circulation, we run a series of short, 5-day simulations initialized from reanalysis data. We find that the differences largely disappear in these runs and therefore infer that the different parameterizations impact precipitation extremes indirectly via the large-scale circulation. Finally, we compare the present-day results with hourly rain gauge data and find that SP underestimates extremes relative to observations regardless of which microphysics scheme is used given a fixed model configuration and resolution.
| Item Type: | Article |
|---|---|
| Additional Information: | Data availability: CPC Hourly U.S. Precipitation data provided by the NOAA/OAR/ESRL PSD, Boulder, Colorado, USA, from their Web site at https://www.esrl.noaa.gov/psd/. The model can be accessed at DOI: 10.5281/zenodo.3727515. Model data needed to reproduce the figures can be found at https://portal.nersc.gov/project/m1517/cascade/charn2019_spcam_microphys/. |
| Uncontrolled Keywords: | climate prediction center hourly precipitation dataset,community atmosphere model,extreme precipitation,iliad,microphysics,superparameterization,environmental science (miscellaneous),general earth and planetary sciences ,/dk/atira/pure/subjectarea/asjc/2300/2301 |
| Faculty \ School: | Faculty of Science > School of Environmental Sciences |
| Related URLs: | |
| Depositing User: | LivePure Connector |
| Date Deposited: | 06 Jul 2026 15:47 |
| Last Modified: | 12 Jul 2026 05:38 |
| URI: | https://ueaeprints.uea.ac.uk/id/eprint/103687 |
| DOI: | 10.1029/2019EA000731 |
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