Evaluating the Impact of Planetary Boundary Layer, Land Surface Model, and Microphysics Parameterization Schemes on Simulated GOES-16 Water Vapor Brightness Temperatures

The impact of several land surface models (LSMs) and microphysics (MP), planetary boundary layer (PBL), and surface layer schemes on the accuracy of simulated brightness temperatures (BTs) from water vapor (WV) sensitive bands was examined via comparison with observations from the GOES-16 Advanced Baseline Imager. Nine parameterization configurations were evaluated. Analysis revealed that, compared to the Thompson MP scheme, the National Severe Storms Laboratory MP scheme produced lower simulated WV BTs in the upper troposphere but higher WV BTs in the middle and lower troposphere. The configuration with the Geophysical Fluid Dynamics Laboratory MP and hybrid eddy-diffusivity mass-flux (EDMF) PBL instead of Mellor-Yamada-Nakanishi-Niino (MYNN) PBL produced higher BTs. Yet, changing the PBL from MYNN to Shin-Hong or EDMF reduced the simulated WV BTs. Changing the LSM from Noah to RUC also resulted in lower simulated WV BTs, which were further enhanced with the MYNN surface layer instead of the GFS. The location and orientation of upper-level jet streams and troughs was assessed using the location of WV gradient objects. Every configuration had an increased translation speed compared to the observations, as forecast WV gradient objects were west of the observation objects early in the forecast and then east later in the forecast.