Testing the DTC’s Single-Column Model for Tropical Cyclone Environment

A single column model (SCM) is a great tool to test physics innovations. The Developmental Testbed Center’s (DTC) SCM was built on top of the Common Community Physics Package (CCPP), a library of physical parameterizations that includes NOAA’s operational suite and several candidate suites. This SCM is part of a hierarchical testing harness that provides tools to understand the behavior of the different parameterization suites and other combinations of compliant schemes under development. The SCM had been recently tested with an advanced convective scheme for maritime and continental convective system.

In this study the SCM will be tested for tropical cyclone (TC) environment conditions. Sensitivity studies by altering sea surface temperatures, surface winds, drag coefficients and other variables critical to TC development and decay will be performed to test the behavior of planetary boundary layer, cumulus, microphysics and other parameterization schemes. Vertical profiles of heat, moisture, and momentum tendencies will be compared with previous studies. The goal is to show that the SCM is a valuable tool for model development, evaluation and scientific analysis in a hierarchal model testing environment.