Estimating the Reproduction Quality of Precipitation over the North Atlantic and Influence of the Hydrostatic Approximation in the WRF–ARW Atmospheric Model

Abstract—The Weather Research and Forecast numerical model (WRF) with the dynamic Advanced Research WRF (ARW) solver was used to simulate the winter (January 2016) and summer (July 2015) atmospheric state over the North Atlantic with a high (15 km) spatial resolution. The quality of precipitation modeling was validated by remote sensing Global Precipitation Measurements (GPM) data and atmospheric ERA-Interim reanalysis. Nonhydrostatic and hydrostatic equations for the vertical velocity were additionally used to investigate their influence on the accuracy of the precipitation modeling results. It was shown that the model in this configuration satisfactorily reproduces the precipitation field. No evidence of hydrostatic approximation was revealed (over a simulation domain with a resolution of 15 km, simplified topography, and parameterizations of convection and microphysical processes).