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Reflectivity calculation doesn't include hail variable in WSM7 and WDM7

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S

saitama

New member
Hi,

I'm using WRF4.1 and found that when computing radar reflectivity (do_radar_ref = 1), the hail variable (qh) doesn't pass into the subroutine refl10cm_wsm7 and refl10cm_wdm7 in WSM7 and WDM7 schemes respectively. Is this a bug?

Saitama
 
Hi,
It doesn't look like qh is passed into the subroutine refl10cm_* for any of the microphysics schemes that seem to have the option to use do_radar_ref. Do you know of a scheme that does pass it in?
 
Hi kwerner,

The new Goddard 4-ice scheme (mp_physics=7) calculates the hail contribution in subroutine saticel_s. And original paper (Bae et al. 2018) also shows the reflectivity from hail.
Currently, those microphysics schemes which support the option do_radar_ref are most 3ice schemes. Some schemes can let you choose graupel or hail but use the same matrix (ex: qg) to store them. That's why you can't see qh doesn't be passed in.

Saitama
 
Hi,
This may be due to a limitation that this particular radar reflectivity routine doesn't distinguish between hail and graupel. Thanks for bringing this to our attention. We will need to investigate this a bit more to determine whether there is actually something missing. If/when we figure something out, we can let you know.
 
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