MPAS-A predicted precipitation is underestimated

[bgrasic]

I am running on a daily base MPAS-A model version 8.2.2 using limited area. Selected domain is presented on the first figure. It has radius of 900 km with the centre in Slovenia and resolution of cells is 10 km. I am using default config_physics_suite = 'mesoscale_reference'.

On the second figure is a graph of measured and predicted precipitation for the last week period for the location in the centre of the domain where I have available measurements on half-hour time resolution:
red curve - predicted precipitation by MPAS-A (sum of rainnc and rainc variables)
black curve - predicted precipitation by WRF
blue curve - measured precipitation

Comparision of the results shows underestimated precipiation for MPAS-A model. I also tried the "convection_permitting", but there I got no precipitation where I guess that the problem is not enough fine resolution. I was also playing with other convection schemes but got even less precipitation.

Is there some problem in my configuration files? Can I maybe turn on some additional debugging information?
I can provide also listing of simulation configuration settings.

I look forward for any suggestions,
Boštjan

 

[Ming Chen]

Hi Boštjan,
Would you please give me more details regarding your case:
(1) what data did you use to provide initial and boundary conditions for this case?
(2) what global mpas mesh did you use to create your regional mesh?
(3) please clarify step-by-step how you set up and run this case.
(4) Can you upload your namelist and streams files for me to take a look?
Thanks!

 

[bgrasic]

Hello,

thank you for your response. Here are some details about my case:
(1) for initial and boundary conditions I used for my case GFS data. Log files from ugrib and init_atmospere are attached and
I hope they describe well enough how initial and boundary conditions are prepared.
(2) I downloaded 60-km – 10-km mesh (x6.999426.grid.nc) for creating my regional mesh.
(3) I hope provided log files in the attachment include enough information how I setup and run my case. Please let me
know if you need additional information. I am usings scripts to create and run model, if needed, I will provide them.
(4) There are also namelist and streams files attached for both init_atmosphere and atmosphere.

Bye,
Boštjan

 

[Ming Chen]

Hi, Boštjan

Thank you for uploading your files. I will take a look and get back to you.

It may take some time and I appreciate your patience.

Ming

 

[Ming Chen]

One more question:

The time series of precip of OBS, WRF and MPAS are for a single point or domain-averaged? If it is for a single point, how did you interpolate MPAS (and WRF) data to the specific point?

 

[bgrasic]

Thank you again for taking your time for my case.

Time series for all three curves (OBS, WRF and MPAS) on the graph are for a single point.

WRF and MPAS values are calculated from the variables RAINC and RAINNC as a difference between current halfhour value at time T and previous halfour value at T-30min: PRECIP = (RAINC(T)+RAINNNC(T))-(RAINC(T-30min)+RAINNC(T-30min)).

MPAS value for a single point are taken as a value from a cell where point in located.
WRF values for a single point are interpolated from 4 nearest cells.

 

[Ming Chen]

Hi, Boštjan

I am writing to tell that I didn't forget your issue. I can repeat the problem but don't know yet how to fix it.

Our HPC is pretty busy and I have to wait in the queue for my job to get started.

I definitely will get back to you for any update and progress. Thank you for your patience.

 

[bgrasic]

Hello,

there is absolutely no rush on my part. I can easily wait as long as it takes. I am very grateful that you took the time to look into our problem.

Best regards, Boštjan

 

[Ming Chen]

Hi, Boštjan,

All your namelist and streams files look fine to me. GFS ungrib also looks good.

I have run a test case over CONUS, using GFS as the forcing data. This is a winter storm case, and I run both WRF and MPAS for 72-hour.

Please see the attached plot that shows accumulated precipitation, --- WRF and MPAS yield similar results. Note that this is a 15-km resolution run, and I did this because I want to run a relatively simple case simply to confirm that MPAS could work as expected.

I am perplexed why your case showed such a severe precipitation underestimation. Would you please upload the following files for me to take a look:

(1) a single LBC file, --- I would like to see whether moisture field is normal in the lateral forcing
(2) a single mpas output file that contains rainc and rainnc and a single wrfout file at the same output time

Thank you.

 

[bgrasic]

Hello,

Thank you for your case, everything look good, so there really might be problem in my input files.

I have prepared you some files on our website to download. There is some short case for today's afternoon precipitations in mountainous part of Slovenia. It might not be perfect case, but so far I have available only online data. Zip file is large because I put there WRF and MPAS outputs as well as LBC files, init file and static file. I hope this is ok with you, otherwise I can split files.

http://www.meis.si/mpas/WRF_vs_MPAS.zip

For the future if needed I can select some episode for some other period that is more characteristic for precipitations.

Regards,
Boštjan