Modeling Mid-Tropospheric Hazards in Convective Thunderstorms For Future A-10 Storm Penetrating Aircraft Missions

The A-10 Storm Penetrating Aircraft will be able to collect in-situ data at altitudes of up to 10 km. In order to understand more about the nature of convective thunderstorms, more needs to be known about the cloud physics and dynamics occurring above 6.5 km, the highest altitude other research aircraft have been able to collect in-situ data. To ensure proper aircraft operation at these altitudes, it is necessary to further study potential hazards such as turbulence, icing, and hail in various types of convective storms. One supercell thunderstorm has been simulated that developed in conditions observed over central Arkansas on the evening of April 27th, 2014 and its output is analyzed in the Grid Analysis Display System (GrADS) with particular attention paid to the storm evolution and areas of maximum updraft. Preliminary results for this thunderstorm show peak updraft strengths increasing with altitude up to 11 km, with cloud liquid water contents of 1 g m^(-3) observed up to 9 km in some instances. A method for converting turbulent kinetic energy to eddy dissipation rate was used to better understand the quantification of turbulence as it relates to pilot reports of turbulence. It will be shown that the choice of cloud parameterization schemes influences the results of the simulation, and further sensitivity tests and research into estimated hail sizes are underway.