The Implementation of an Explicit Charging and Discharge Lightning Scheme within the WRF-ARW Model: Benchmark Simulations of a Continental Squall Line, a Tropical Cyclone, and a Winter Storm

This work describes the recent implementation of explicit lightning physics within the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) Model. Charging of hydrometeors consists of five distinct noninductive parameterizations, polarization of cloud water, and the exchange of charge during collisional mass transfer. The three components of the ambient electric field are explicitly solved for via the computationally efficient multigrid elliptic solver. The discharge process employs concepts adapted from two well-documented bulk lightning models, whereby charge reduction is imposed within a prescribed volume centered at grid points characterized by electric field magnitudes exceeding a given breakdown threshold. This lightning model was evaluated through benchmark convection-allowing (3 km) model simulations of three contrasting convective systems: a continental squall line, a major hurricane (Rita 2005), and a winter storm. The areal coverage and magnitude of the simulated hourly flash origin density (FOD) for the continental squall line are qualitatively comparable to that of the total lightning data observations from Earth Networks Total Lightning Network (ENTLN). In agreement with the ENTLN observations, no FOD are simulated for the winter storm case. The simulated spatial FOD pattern of the hurricane and the eyewall gross charge structure were both in reasonable agreement with observations. The simulated FOD for all three cases were also evaluated against those obtained with the recently developed McCaul diagnostic lightning prediction schemes and exhibited overall good qualitative agreement with each other for Rita and the continental squall line.