Abstract
Abstract. A computationally efficient method is proposed to replace the piecewise linear number distribution in a hybrid bin scheme with a piecewise cubic polynomial. When the linear distribution is replaced by a cubic, the errors generated in solutions to the condensation/evaporation equation are reduced by a factor of two to three. Alternatively, using the cubic distribution function allows reducing the number of bins by 20 ± 5% when solving the condensation/evaporation problem without sacrificing accuracy.
Highlights
In the microphysics context, a hybrid bin scheme is a twomoment explicit scheme designed to solve for the evolution of the size spectrum of cloud droplets and ice crystals
The CL scheme has been implemented in meso- and synoptic-scale cloud resolving models, including the Nonhydrostatic Modeling System of the University of Wisconsin (Hashino and Tripoli, 2007) and the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model (Goddard Space Flight Center, 2011)
It has been used in case studies of warm clouds (Kuba and Fujiyoshi, 2006; Kuba and Murakami, 2010), orographic clouds (Chen and Lamb, 1999), synoptically forced cirrostratus (Lin et al, 2005) and thin cirrus in the tropical tropopause layer (Dinh et al, 2010)
Summary
A hybrid bin scheme is a twomoment explicit scheme designed to solve for the evolution of the size spectrum of cloud droplets and ice crystals. The CL scheme has been implemented in meso- and synoptic-scale cloud resolving models, including the Nonhydrostatic Modeling System of the University of Wisconsin (Hashino and Tripoli, 2007) and the Goddard Cumulus Ensemble model (Goddard Space Flight Center, 2011) It has been used in case studies of warm clouds (Kuba and Fujiyoshi, 2006; Kuba and Murakami, 2010), orographic clouds (Chen and Lamb, 1999), synoptically forced cirrostratus (Lin et al, 2005) and thin cirrus in the tropical tropopause layer (Dinh et al, 2010). We show that replacing the linear distribution function by a cubic polynomial significantly reduces the error of the scheme in solving the condensation/evaporation equation This new scheme can be used to increase accuracy, or can alternatively allow computations with fewer bins to obtain the same accuracy. Such an increase in efficiency may be useful for modelers using hybrid bin schemes in cloud resolving models
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