Sensitivity of organized convective storms to model grid spacing in current and future climates

Mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) are complexes of thunderstorms that become organized and cover hundreds of kilometres over several hours. MCSs are prolific rain producers in the tropics and mid-latitudes and are the major cause of warm-season flooding. Traditionally, climate models have difficulties in simulating MCSs partly due to the misrepresentation of complex process interactions that operate across a large range of scales. Significant improvements in simulating MCSs have been found in kilometre-scale models that explicitly simulate deep convection. However, these models operate in the grey zone of turbulent motion and have known deficiencies in simulating small-scale processes (e.g. entrainment, vertical mass transport). Here, we perform mid-latitude idealized ensemble MCS simulations under current and future climate conditions in three atmospheric regimes: hydrostatic (12 km horizontal grid spacing; Delta x), non-hydrostatic (Delta x = 4, 2 and 1 km) and large eddy scale (Delta x = 500 m and 250 m). Our results show a dramatic improvement in simulating MCS precipitation, movement, cold pools, and cloud properties when transitioning from 12 km to 4 km Delta x. Decreasing Delta x beyond 4 km results in modest improvements except for up- and downdraft sizes, average vertical mass fluxes, and cloud top height and temperature, which continue to change. Most important for climate modelling is that Delta x = 4 km simulations reliably capture most MCS climate change signals compared to those of the Delta x = 250 m runs. Significantly different climate change signals are found in Delta x = 12 km runs that overestimate extreme precipitation changes by up to 100%. This article is part of a discussion meeting issue 'Intensification of short-duration rainfall extremes and implications for flash flood risks'.

Automated summary

This study shows significant improvements in simulating MCS precipitation, movement, cold pools, and cloud properties when transitioning from 12 km to 4 km grid spacing. While decreasing grid spacing beyond 4 km results in modest improvements, certain parameters continue to change. Most importantly, simulations with a 4 km grid spacing reliably capture most MCS climate change signals compared to those with a 250 m grid spacing.