Assessing the impact of stochastic perturbations in cloud microphysics using GOES-16 infrared brightness temperatures

In this study, infrared brightness temperatures (BTs) are used to examine how applying stochastic perturbed parameter (SPP) methodology to the widely used Thompson-Eidhammer cloud microphysics scheme impacts the cloud field in high-resolution forecasts. Modifications are made to add stochastic perturbations to three parameters controlling cloud generation and dissipation processes. Two five-member ensembles are generated, one using the microphysics parameter perturbations (SPP-MP) and another where white noise perturbations were added to potential temperature fields at initialization time (Control). The impact of the SPP method was assessed using simulated and observed GOES-16 BTs. This analysis uses pixel-based and object-based methods to assess the impact on the cloud field. Pixel-based methods revealed that the SPP-MP BTs are slightly more accurate than the Control BTs. However, too few pixels with a BT lower than 270 K result in a positive bias compared to the observations. A negative bias compared to the observations is observed when only analyzing lower BTs. The spread of the ensemble BTs was analyzed using the continuous ranked probability score differences, with the SPP-MP ensemble BTs having less (more) spread during May (January) compared to the Control. Object-based analysis using the Method for Object-Based Diagnostic Evaluation revealed the upper-level cloud objects are smaller in the SPP-MP ensemble than the Control but a lower bias exists in the SPP-MP BTs compared to the Control BTs when overlapping matching objects. However, there is no clear distinction between the SPP-MP and Control ensemble members during the evolution of objects, Overall, the SPP-MP perturbations result in lower BTs compared to the Control ensemble and more cloudy pixels.