Cloud Resolving Modeling of Tropical Cloud Systems during Phase III of GATE. Part III: Effects of Cloud Microphysics

Abstract Large-scale conditions during the 7-day period of Phase III of the Global Atmospheric Research Program Atlantic Tropical Experiment are used to study effects of cloud microphysics on the convecting tropical atmosphere. Two-dimensional numerical experiments evaluate the effects of extreme changes to the cloud microphysics in the cloud resolving model. The main conclusions are the following. (a) Extreme changes in cloud microphysics affect the temperature and moisture profiles in a way that approximately retains relative humidity profiles in all experiments. (b) With prescribed radiative tendencies, effects of cloud microphysics on surface processes are paramount. Extreme changes in warm rain microphysics indirectly affect the temperature and moisture profiles by modifying surface sensible and latent heat fluxes. For instance, smaller raindrops, and to a lesser degree slower conversion of cloud water into rain, result in enhanced updraft and downdraft cloud mass fluxes, a colder and drier boundary ...

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