Microphysical Observations and Mesoscale Model Simulation of a Warm Fog Case during FRAM Project

Abstract

The objective of this work is to apply a new microphysical parameterization for fog visibility for potential use in numerical weather forecast simulations, and to compare the results with ground-based observations. The observations from the Fog Remote Sensing And Modeling (FRAM) field which took place during the winter of 2005 – 2006 over southern Ontario, Canada (Phase I) were used in the analysis. The liquid water content (LWC), droplet number concentration (N _d ), and temperature (T) were obtained from the fog measuring device (FMD) spectra and Rosemount probe, correspondingly. The visibility (Vis) from a visibility meter, liquid water path from microwave radiometers (MWR), and inferred fog properties such as mean volume diameter, LWC, and N _d were also used in the analysis. The results showed that Vis is nonlinearly related to both LWC and N _d . Comparisons between newly derived parameterizations and the ones already in use as a function of LWC suggested that if models can predict the total N _d and LWC at each time step using a detailed microphysics parameterization, Vis can then be calculated for warm fog conditions. Using outputs from the Canadian Mesoscale Compressible Community (MC2) model, being tested with a new multi-moment bulk microphysical scheme, the new Vis parameterization resulted in more accurate Vis values where the correction reached up to 20 –50%.