Evaluation of Autoconversion Representation in E3SMv2 Using an Ensemble of Large‐Eddy Simulations of Low‐Level Warm Clouds

Abstract

Abstract In numerical atmospheric models that treat cloud and rain droplet populations as separate condensate categories, precipitation initiation in warm clouds is often represented by an autoconversion rate (Au), which is the rate of formation of new rain droplets through the collisions of cloud droplets. Being a function of the cloud droplet size distribution (DSD), the local Au is commonly parameterized as a function of DSD moments: cloud droplet number nc and mass qc concentrations. When applied in a large‐scale model, the grid‐mean Au must also include a correction, or enhancement factor, to account for the horizontal variability of the cloud properties across the model grid. In this study, we evaluate the Au representation in the Energy Exascale Earth System Model version 2 (E3SMv2) climate model using large‐eddy simulations (LES), which explicitly resolve cloud droplet spectra, and therefore the local Au, as well as its spatial variability. The analysis of an ensemble of warm low‐level cloud cases shows that the E3SMv2 formulation represents the Au reasonably well compared to the horizontally averaged explicitly computed rate from LES. The agreement, however, comes from a combination of an underestimated E3SM‐tuned local Au rate and an overestimated subgrid cloud variability enhancement factor. The latter bias is traced to neglecting the horizontal variability of nc and its co‐variability with qc in parameterizing the grid‐mean Au.

Keywords

• autoconversion parameterization
• large‐eddy simulation
• subgrid variability
• climate modeling
• precipitation
• cloud