Impact of scale-aware deep convection on the cloud liquid and ice water paths and precipitation using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS-v5.2).

The cloud liquid water path (LWP), ice water path (IWP), and precipitation simulated with uniform- and variable-resolution numerical experiments using the Model for Prediction Across Scales (MPAS) are compared against Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Tropical Rainfall Measuring Mission data. Our comparison between monthly-mean model diagnostics and satellite data focuses on the convective activity regions of the tropical Pacific Ocean, extending from the Tropical Eastern Pacific Basin where trade wind boundary layer clouds develop to the Western Pacific Warm Pool characterized by deep convective updrafts capped with extended upper-tropospheric ice clouds. Using the scale-aware Grell-Freitas (GF) and Multiscale Kain-Fritsch (MSKF) convection schemes in conjunction with the Thompson cloud microphysics, uniform-resolution experiments produce large biases between simulated and satellite-retrieved LWP, IWP, and precipitation.