Evaluating the Influence of Microphysics on Orographic Precipitation

Orographic precipitation plays a vital role in providing water resources to mountain communities, as well as having adverse impacts such as flooding. Complex interactions between the dynamics, thermodynamics, and cloud microphysics can control precipitation type, amount, and its location over a mountain. Orographic precipitation is known to be sensitive to the upwind sounding, microphysics, and latent heating, but disentangling these factors is a challenge. This study aims to further explore environmental and microphysical controls on surface precipitation and assess sensitivity to ice microphysics parameterizations from a numerical perspective. Idealized simulations of orographic precipitation are performed, as well as analysis of observations from the 2015-2016 Olympic Mountain Experiment (OLYMPEX) field campaign over the Olympic Peninsula of Washington State.