Microphysical processes producing high ice water contents (HIWCs) in tropical convective clouds during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign: evaluation of simulations using bulk microphysical schemes

Huang, Yongjie; Wu, Wei; McFarquhar, Greg M.; Wang, Xuguang; Morrison, Hugh; Ryzhkov, Alexander; Hu, Yachao; Wolde, Mengistu; Nguyen, Cuong; Schwarzenboeck, Alfons; Milbrandt, Jason; Korolev, Alexei V.; Heckman, Ivan

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 9

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 9

Research article

|

06 May 2021

Research article |

| 06 May 2021

Microphysical processes producing high ice water contents (HIWCs) in tropical convective clouds during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign: evaluation of simulations using bulk microphysical schemes

Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Xuguang Wang, Hugh Morrison, Alexander Ryzhkov, Yachao Hu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, and Ivan Heckman

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021-supplement

Data sets

ERA5 Reanalysis (0.25 Degree Latitude-Longitude Grid). Research Data Archive at the National Center for Atmospheric Research European Centre for Medium-Range Weather Forecasts https://doi.org/10.5065/BH6N-5N20

Short summary

Numerous small ice crystals in the tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. This study evaluated the numerical models against the airborne observations and investigated the potential cloud processes that could lead to the production of these large numbers of small ice crystals. It is found that key microphysical processes are still lacking or misrepresented in current numerical models to realistically simulate the phenomenon.