EureakAlert  October 5, 2022 Microphysics processes, which include the formation and breakup of liquid droplets and ice crystals, cannot be directly simulated in climate models because of their small spatial scales. Thus, models must simulate their net effect on clouds indirectly. A team of researchers in the US (Lawrence Berkeley National Laboratory, UC Irvine) investigated multiple ways of doing this and examined the resultant effect on rainfall extremes. While feedbacks onto large-scale weather patterns are important globally as they were in CONUS, significant local effects manifest in the tropics. For instance, the more comprehensive (2-moment) microphysics scheme produces clouds associated […]