Numerical study of the precipitation diurnal variation and its relationship with cloud radiative heating during the Meiyu period in 2020

Based on hourly rain gauge observation, cloud amount, and radiative fluxes data from the Clouds and the Earth’s Radiant Energy System (CERES) and ECMWF Reanalysis v5 (ERA5) dataset, the precipitation process during the Meiyu period in the middle and lower reaches of the Yangtze River in 2020 was simulated in WRF to reveal the influence of cloud radiative heating process on the diurnal variation of precipitation using multiple cloud microphysical schemes. The statistical evaluation of three microphysical parameterization schemes shows that the two-moment scheme WDM6 is more reasonable than the other two schemes in simulating the precipitation distribution, central intensity, and cloud characteristic distribution. There are significant bimodal characteristics in the diurnal variation of precipitation during the Meiyu period by analyzing the observation data. The numerical experiment accurately simulated the time and magnitude of the early morning peak in the heavy rain area but failed to reproduce the peak in the late afternoon, resulting in a false weak rainfall accumulation. The comparison of simulation results with the observed cloud macroscale and microscale characteristics revealed that the reason for the deviation of precipitation simulation was closely related to the inaccurate description of cloud microphysical quantities. The lack of ice phase cloud droplets led to excessively strong radiative heating rate at 200–500 hPa, resulting in anomalous warming in the mid-upper troposphere. Meanwhile, the cold advection at 850 hPa led to anomalous cooling in the lower troposphere, increasing atmospheric stability and further inhibiting the development of the afternoon thermal convection process.