Confronting the Challenge of Modeling Cloud and Precipitation Microphysics

Refers to the microscale processes that affect cloud and precipitation particles and is a key linkage among the various components of Earth's atmospheric water and energy cycles. The representation of microphysical processes in models continues to pose a major challenge leading to uncertainty in numerical weather forecasts and climate simulations. In this paper, the problem of treating microphysics in models is divided into two parts: (i) how to represent the population of cloud and precipitation particles, given the impossibility of simulating all particles individually within a cloud, and (ii) uncertainties in the microphysical process rates owing to fundamental gaps in knowledge of cloud physics. The…

• NS
  National Science Foundation

  Awards: 2017/25/B/ST10/02383, AGS‐1824243, 2016/23/B/ST10/00690
• UD
  U.S. Department of Energy

  Awards: DE-SC0016476, DE‐SC0016579 DE‐SC0018933, DE‐SC0016237, DE‐SC0020171, DE-SC0016579, DE‐SC0016476
• NA
  National Aeronautics and Space Administration
• ER
  European Research Council

  Award: 714062
• H2
  Horizon 2020

  Award: 714062