Comparison of using distribution‐specific versus effective radius methods for hydrometeor single‐scattering properties for all‐sky microwave satellite radiance simulations with different microphysics parameterization schemes Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

The Community Radiative Transfer Model (CRTM) presently uses one look-up table (LUT) of cloud and precipitation single-scattering properties at microwave frequencies, with which any particle sizedistribution may interface via effective radius. This may produce scattering properties insuf ficiently representative of the model output if the microphysics parameterization scheme particle size distribution mismatches that assumed in constructing the LUT, such as one being exponential and the other monodisperse, or assuming different particle bulk densities. The CRTM also assigns a 5 μm effective radius to all nonprecipitating clouds, an additional inconsistency. Brightness temperatures are calculated from 3 hconvection-permitting simulations of Hurricane Karl (2010) by the Weather Research and Forecasting model; each simulation uses one of three different microphysics schemes. For each microphysics scheme, a consistent