Effects of microphysics and aerosols on TC Intensity and structure as seen from high resolution WRF simulations

We simulate Hurricane Irene (2011) that moved northward along the eastern coast of the United States and weakened much faster than was predicted. The minimum pressure in Irene occurred about 40 h later than the time of maximum wind speed. Simulations performed with WRF with the spectral bin microphysics (SBM) showed that both the weakening of Irene and the time shift between maximum of wind and the minimum of pressure were caused by the effects of aerosols leading to the intensification of convection at its periphery resulting in an increase in size. Irena was also simulated using different bulk-parameterization schemes. The dispersion of TC in simulations using different schemes is very high, which indicates high sensitivity of TC intensity to microphysical processes. Despite the fact that new bulk-parameterization schemes simulated TC intensity quite well, non of bulk-schemes were able to predict the time shift between maximum wind and minimum surface pressure. The plausible reason is a too weak sensitivity of bulk schemes to aerosols.