Effect of Different Microphysical Parameterizations on the Simulations of a South China Heavy Rainfall

A heavy rainfall event in south China was simulated by the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with three microphysics schemes, including the Morrison scheme, Thompson scheme, and Milbrandt and Yau scheme (MY), which aim to evaluate the capability to reproduce the precipitation and radar echo reflectivity features, and to evaluate evaluate their differences in microphysics and the associated thermodynamical and dynamical feedback. Results show that all simulations reproduce the main features crucial for rainfall formation. Compared with the observation, the MY scheme performed better than the other two schemes in terms of intensity and spatial distribution of rainfall. Due to abundant water vapor, the accretion of cloud droplets by raindrops was the dominant process in the growth of raindrops while the contribution of melting was a secondary effect. Riming processes, in which frozen hydrometeors collect cloud droplets mainly, contributed more to the growth of frozen hydrometeors than the Bergeron process. Extremely abundant snow and ice were produced in the Thompson and MY schemes respectively by a deposition process. The MY scheme has the highest condensation and evaporation, but the lowest deposition. As a result, in the MY scheme, the enhanced vertical gradient of condensation heating and evaporation cooling at low levels produces strong positive and weak negative potential vorticity in Guangdong, and may favor the formation of the enhanced rainfall center over there.