Effect of physical parameterization schemes on track and intensity of cyclone LAILA using WRF model

The objective of the present study is to investigate in detail the sensitivity of cumulus parameterization (CP), planetary boundary layer (PBL) parameterization, microphysics parameterization (MP) on the numerical simulation of severe cyclone LAILA over Bay of Bengal using Weather Research & Forecasting (WRF) model. The initial and boundary conditions are supplied from GFS data of 1° × 1° resolution and the model is integrated in three ‘twoway’ interactive nested domains at resolutions of 60 km, 20 km and 6.6 km. Total three sets of experiments are performed. First set of experiments include sensitivity of Cumulus Parameterization (CP) schemes, while second and third set of experiments is carried out to check the sensitivity of different PBL and Microphysics Parameterization (MP) schemes. The fourth set contains initial condition sensitivity experiments. For first three sets of experiments, 0000 UTC 17 May 2010 is used as initial condition. In CP sensitivity experiments, the track and intensity is well simulated by Betts-Miller-Janjic (BMJ) schemes. The track and intensity of LAILA is very sensitive to the representation of large scale environmental flow in CP scheme as well as to the initial vertical wind shear values. The intensity of the cyclone is well simulated by YSU scheme and it depends upon the mixing treatment in and above PBL. Concentration of frozen hydrometeors, such as graupel in WSM6 MP scheme and latent heat released during auto conversion of hydrometeors may be responsible for storm intensity. An additional set of experiments with different initial vortex intensity shows that, small differences in the initial wind fields have profound impact on both track and intensity of the cyclone. The representation of the mid-tropospheric heating in WSM6 is mainly controlled by amount of graupel hydrometeor and thus might be one of the possible causes in modulating the storm’s intensity.