An Alternative Mass Flux Profile in the Kain–Fritsch Convective Parameterization and Its Effects in Seasonal Precipitation

Abstract

The authors have altered the vertical profile of updraft mass flux detrainment in an implementation of the Kain–Fritsch2 (KF2) convective parameterization within the fifth-generation Pennsylvania State University–National Center for Atmospheric Research (Penn State–NCAR) Mesoscale Model (MM5). The effect of this modification was to alter the vertical profile of convective parameterization cloud mass (including cloud water and ice) supplied to the host model for explicit simulation by the grid-resolved dynamical equations and parameterized microphysical processes. These modifications and their sensitivity to horizontal resolution in a matrix of experimental simulations of the June–July 1993 flood in the central United States were tested. The KF2 modifications impacted the diurnal cycle of precipitation by reducing precipitation from the convective parameterization and increasing precipitation from more slowly evolving mesoscale processes. The modified KF2 reduced an afternoon bias of high precipitation rate in both low- and high-resolution simulations but affected mesoscale precipitation processes only in high-resolution simulations. The combination of high-resolution and modified KF2 resulted in more frequent and more realistically clustered propagating, nocturnal mesoscale precipitation events and agreed best with observations of the nocturnal precipitation rate.