REFL_10CM at initial time

[meteorology1]

Hi,

I am trying to get the REFL_10CM output at initial time.
In particular, I would like to get the reflectivity field recalculated from the modified hydrometeors mixing ratios. Is it possible?
I am using WRFv4, and the model usually outputs the reflectivity fields which are available in "wrfinput_d01" file.

Thanks

 

[Ming Chen]

Hi,
I don't think you can get REFL_10CM at the initial time. this is because REFL_10CM is a diagnosed from other microphysical variables. At the initial time of WRF, these variables are not available.

 

[meteorology1]

Hi,

"At the initial time of WRF, these variables are not available." can you please explain what does that mean?
Do you mean that the microphysical variables are not used to calculate (at initial time) the REFL_10CM when the WRF model is run?

Thanks

 

[Ming Chen]

All the hydrometeors required for REFL_10CM calculation are not initialized in in wrfinput. If you check their values, you can find that they are all zero at the initial time. One option to obtain REFL_10CM at the beginning of the model run is that, you may manage to get these hydrometeors from the forcing data you use to drive WRF, then calculate REFL_10CM following the approach used in WRF.

 

[meteorology1]

Hi,

I am performing data assimilation, where at the analysis time I have updated the hydrometeor variables in the initial condition file "wrfinput_d01". Now when the model runs, I need WRF to recalculate REFL_10CM using the updated hydrometeor variables in "wrfinput_d01" file at the time the model is initialized and output it in "wrfout_d01" file at the run time. Whats happening is that the WRF just copies the REFL_10CM from the "wrfinput_d01" to "wrfout_d01" file without recalculating it again.

Can you please tell me where do I need to make changes in WRF code.

Thanks

 

[Ming Chen]

Hi,
refl_10cm is calculated in microphysics scheme. Let's take WSM6 as an example. You can find the calculation in the code phys/module_mp_wsm6.F,

         IF ( PRESENT (diagflag) ) THEN
         if (diagflag .and. do_radar_ref == 1) then
            DO I=its,ite
               DO K=kts,kte
                  t1d(k)=th(i,k,j)*pii(i,k,j)
                  p1d(k)=p(i,k,j)
                  qv1d(k)=q(i,k,j)
                  qr1d(k)=qr(i,k,j)
                  qs1d(k)=qs(i,k,j)
                  qg1d(k)=qg(i,k,j)
               ENDDO
               call refl10cm_wsm6 (qv1d, qr1d, qs1d, qg1d,              &
                       t1d, p1d, dBZ, kts, kte, i, j)
               do k = kts, kte
                  refl_10cm(i,k,j) = MAX(-35., dBZ(k))
               enddo
            ENDDO
         endif
         ENDIF

It implies that refl_10cm is available only when the MP physics is activated. At the initial time, the MP schemes has not started and refl_10cm is set to zero.

To obtain this variable, you will need to modify the code dyn_em/start_em.F, in which you can find the following piece of code:

 IF(config_flags%cycling) THEN
       start_of_simulation = .true.
!  print *,'cycling, start_of_simulation -->',config_flags%cycling, start_of_simulation
       grid%xtime=0.
!   print *,'xtime=',grid%xtime
   ENDIF
[/ccode]
 
 Inside the IF condition, you can add the code to calculate refl_10cm. Be cautious to specify the correct variables used in the MP for refl_10cm calculation.