Effects of model grid spacing for warm conveyor belt (WCB) moisture transport into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS) – Part 1: Lagrangian perspective

Abstract. Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) in extratropical cyclones transport moisture and hydrometeors into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS), influencing the radiative balance. Earlier research has shown that the horizontal grid spacing of numerical weather prediction (NWP) models has an impact on the modelled WCB properties, such as ascent rates and diabatic heating. This first part of a two-part study examines the impact of model grid spacing on the transport of moisture from a Lagrangian perspective. We analyze two ICON model simulations of one North Atlantic WCB case study: a convection-parameterizing run at ∼ 13 km and a convection-permitting run at ∼ 3.5 km approximate grid spacing. We hypothesize that key differences in the modelled transport of moisture arise from higher vertical velocities in the high-resolution simulation. The convection-permitting simulation produces more rapid ascent and a drier WCB outflow with lower specific and relative humidity. We attribute this to higher ice number concentrations, which deplete supersaturation more efficiently. This high-resolution simulation also exhibits more pronounced frozen-phase microphysics, stronger frozen precipitation, notably different hydrometeor mass mixing ratios, number concentrations, and radii than the lower resolution simulation – indicating that horizontal resolution substantially influences modelled WCB cloud composition. These results demonstrate that weather and climate models using convection-parameterizing resolutions may systematically misrepresent WCB cloud properties and UTLS humidity, with potential consequences for accurately simulating Earth's radiative budget and upper-level flow.