Validating NU-WRF simulations during GPM field campaigns for various precipitation systems

Several recent Global Precipitation Measurement (GPM) Ground Validation (GV) field campaigns have provided excellent measurements for model validations, such as Mid-latitude Continental Convective Clouds Experiment (MC3E), GPM Cold-season Precipitation Experiment (GCPEx), and Iowa Flood Studies (IFloodS). Two series of real-time forecasts have been conducted during MC3E and IFloodS field campaigns using NASA Unified WRF (NU-WRF). These NU-WRF performances were evaluated through the investigation of a various precipitation systems under different weather regimes. Four cases are selected from MC3E (late spring) and IFloodS (late spring into early summer), covering strong convective vs. widespread stratiform systems for post mission study. And two cases are selected from GCPEx (winter) covering lake effect vs. synoptic snow events. Each simulated case will be validated rigorously against available observational datasets with an emphasis on microphysics, such as simulated radar reflectivity, particle size distribution, and ice water content. The study also features inter-comparisons among different microphysics schemes for MC3E cases, such as Goddard 4-ice, spectral-bin, and Morrison schemes, in order to understand how microphysics impact on storm evolution and structures. In addition, we will examine whether (and why) these model-observation differences are case dependent or systematically biased in model physics. The above effort will be beneficial for algorithm development and model improvement.