Grid spacing effects on convection initiation and aerosol-cloud interactions: A case study of a supercell storm from the Swabian MOSES 2021 field campaign

Abstract

The predictability of deep moist convection is subject to large uncertainties, mainly due to inaccurate initial and boundary data, incomplete description of physical processes, or uncertainties in microphysical parameterizations. In this study, we present hindcasts of a supercell storm that occurred during the Swabian MOSES field campaign in southwestern Germany in summer 2021. The supercell storm of 23 June 2021 passed directly over the main observation site equipped with various instruments, allowing a detailed comparison of simulations and observations. The preconvective radiosonde observations revealed suitable conditions for supercell development, i.e., low convective inhibition, moderate convective available potential energy, sufficient deep-layer shear, and a Bulk Richardson number of 22. Numerical simulations were performed with the ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (ICON) model using two horizontal grid spacings (i.e., 2 km/1 km) with a single-moment and a double-moment microphysics scheme. The double-moment scheme allows us to study aerosol effects on clouds and precipitation with cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations ranging from low to very high. Numerical results show that all 2-km model realizations do not simulate convective precipitation at the correct location and time. For the 1-km grid spacing, changes in aerosol concentration resulted in large changes in convective precipitation, causing the supercell to disappear completely in some simulations. Only the 1-km model run, which assumes a clean environment, is able to realistically capture the supercell storm. During the Swabian MOSES field campaign, aerosol particle concentrations and size distributions were continuously measured with an optical particle counter from June to August 2021. The day of the supercell storm was characterized by the lowest potential CCN values of the month, suggesting that the low aerosol concentration in the successful model run is a reasonable assumption for this case study. Possible reasons for the discrepant model results, i.e., effects of grid spacing on convection initiation and detailed analyses of microphysical process rates, are discussed. These results demonstrate the benefits of using an aerosol-aware double-moment microphysics scheme at high model resolution for convection initiation and cloud evolution, and that the use of different CCN concentrations can determine whether a supercell is successfully simulated or not.