A comparison study of the Kuo and Grell cumulus parameterizations schemes (CPSs), was conducted using the Brazilian Regional Modeling System (BRAMS), for to evaluate this role in severe storms simulation. In this context, we analyzed a cold front case on Brazil south region, occurred on December 11, 2003. The experiments are identical, except from the CPSs difference: the SCKUO experiment uses the Kuo scheme and the SCGRELL experiment uses the Grell scheme. The evaluation of the simulated precipitation focuses on comparison of two aspects: Intensity and areal coverage. Also we analyzed the convective parameters simulation conceived to identify atmospheric environments favorable for the severe convection. The accumulated precipitation simulated from SCKUO underestimated the observed data, but better represented the areal coverage. The accumulated precipitation simulated from SCGRELL better represented the rain intensity, but overestimated the observed data. Therefore, the better option, for this convection case, is the Grell Parameterization. Both experiments simulated the convective parameters with good approximation, with emphasis in Grell scheme. This result showed that the mesoscale model is a useful tool in the identification of atmospheric environments favorable for the development of severe convective storms, with great CPSs contribution.
BRAMS; convection parameterization; severe storms
