- 1Laboratory of Atmospheric Processes and their Impacts (LAPI), School of Architecture, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 2Leipzig Institute for Meteorology, Leipzig University, Leipzig, Germany
- 3Environmental Remote Sensing Laboratory (LTE), School of Architecture, Civil & Environmental Engineering, Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne, Lausanne, Switzerland
- 4Center for Studies of Air Quality and Climate Change, Institute of Chemical Engineering Sciences, Foundation for Research and Technology Hellas, Patras, Greece
- 5Environmental Radioactivity & Aerosol technology for atmospheric & Climate impacT Lab (ENRACT), Institute of Nuclear and Radiological Sciences and Technology, Energy and Safety, National Centre of Scientific Research “Demokritos”, Ag. Paraskevi, Greece
- 6Department of Environmental Science, Stockholm University, Stockholm, Sweden
Mixed-phase clouds play a key role in weather and climate and are a major challenge to model accurately in models. Nevertheless, considerable progress on modeling microphysical processes in mixed-phase clouds, such as primary and Secondary Ice Production (SIP) has led to systematic improvements in model performance.
Here, we use the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with the EPFL/FORTH cloud microphysical scheme improvements (Georgakaki et al., 2024) to simulate weather, cloud formation and precipitation events sampled during the Cleancloud Helmos OrograPhic sIte experimeNt (CHOPIN) campaign during the Fall of 2024 to Spring of 2025. CHOPIN takes place at Mount Helmos in the Peloponnese, Greece, an ideal location for studying aerosol-cloud interactions in orographic mixed-phase clouds.
The performance of SIP parameterizations in WRF are evaluated by (i) comparing model outputs to meteorological data from both a fixed weather station and radiosondes, (ii) comparing the model's ability to capture boundary layer dynamics using atmospheric trace gasses as a proxy, and (iii) the model's ability to capture cloud formation using reflectivity from a Ka-band (35 GHz) radar, by comparing the output of a forward operator (radar simulation) from the modeled cloud fields. Through the modelling of various days between October 2024 and December 2024, as well as a clustering analysis of the radar reflectivities, the capabilities of using SIP parameterizations in WRF are assessed with respect to particular cloud regimes. We see that distinct improvements are seen in the simulated fields, particularly for the clusters associated with cloud fields that are developed and regional in nature.
How to cite: Waseem, A., Georgakaki, P., Clerx, N., Foskinis, R., Molina, C., Gini, M., Billault-Roux, A.-C., Zieger, P., Eleftheriadis, K., Berne, A., and Nenes, A.: An Investigation of the Validity of Secondary Ice Production Parameterizations in WRF in an Orographic Environment with Preliminary Data From CHOPIN, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-18611, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-18611, 2025.
