Simulations of a supercell thunderstorm with radiative transfer, surface physics, and a soil model

This study builds on recent work of simulating a supercell thunderstorm using a two-stream radiative transfer parameterization. The inclusion of radiative processes augments the low-level horizontal vorticity field beneath the anvil cloud and generates a surface temperature deficit in this same region. Current radiative transfer models only propagate radiation vertically through the model atmosphere and do not account for the local solar azimuth or zenith angles in the direct beam calculation. This effect is included in the present work through the implementation of a coordinate transformation within the radiative transfer model, the implications of which are also discussed. The necessary implementation of surface physics and a soil model also alters the evolution of the simulated storm. For example, changing the soil type can make the simulated storm stronger or weaker, and can even have an affect on storm motion.