Cloud droplets to drizzle: Contribution of transition drops to microphysical and optical properties of marine stratocumulus clouds

Aircraft measurements of the ubiquitous marine stratocumulus cloud type, with over 3000 km of in situ data from the Pacific during the Cloud System Evolution in the Trades experiment, show the ability of the Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC) instrument to smoothly interpolate the small and large droplet data collected with Cloud Droplet Probe and 2DC instruments. The combined, comprehensive instrument suite reveals a surprisingly large contribution in the predrizzle size range of 40–80 μm (transition droplets, or drizzlets), a range typically not measured and assumed to reside in a condensation-to-collision minimum between cloud droplet and drizzle modes. Besides shedding light on t…

Fine-Scale Droplet Clustering in Atmospheric Clouds: 3D Radial Distribution Function from Airborne Digital Holography

The extent of droplet clustering in turbulent clouds has remained largely unquantified, and yet is of possible relevance to precipitation formation and radiative transfer. To that end, data gathered by an airborne holographic instrument are used to explore the three-dimensional spatial statistics of cloud droplet positions in homogeneous stratiform boundary-layer clouds. The three-dimensional radial distribution functions g(r) reveal unambiguous evidence of droplet clustering. Three key theoretical predictions are observed: the existence of positive correlations, onset of correlation in the turbulence dissipation range, and monotonic increase of g(r) with decreasing r. This implies that cur…

Light Propagation in Clouds: From Digital Holography to Non-Exponential Extinction

Optical propagation is strongly influenced b y t he n umber concentration, size distribution, thermodynamic phase, and spatial distribution of particles in atmospheric clouds. These properties have been investigated in the field using an airborne digital holographic instrument. A laboratory facility has also been developed, in which optical propagation is being investigated in steady-state turbulent-cloud conditions.

Search for Microphysical Signatures of Stochastic Condensation in Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Using Airborne Digital Holography

Holographic Observations of Centimeter-Scale Nonuniformities within Marine Stratocumulus Clouds

Abstract Data collected with a holographic instrument [Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC)] on board the High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research Gulfstream-V (HIAPER GV) aircraft from marine stratocumulus clouds during the Cloud System Evolution in the Trades (CSET) field project are examined for spatial uniformity. During one flight leg at 1190 m altitude, 1816 consecutive holograms were taken, which were approximately 40 m apart with individual hologram dimensions of 1.16 cm × 0.68 cm × 12.0 cm and with droplet concentrations of up to 500 cm−3. Unlike earlier studies, minimally intrusive data processing (e.g., bypassing calculation of number concen…

The impact of geoengineering on vegetation in experiment G1 of the GeoMIP

Solar Radiation Management (SRM) has been proposed as a mean to partly counteract global warming. The Geoengineering Model Intercomparison Project (GeoMIP) has simulated the climate consequences of a number of SRM techniques. Thus far, the effects on vegetation have not yet been thoroughly analyzed. Here the vegetation response to the idealized GeoMIP G1 experiment from eight fully coupled Earth system models (ESMs) is analyzed, in which a reduction of the solar constant counterbalances the radiative effects of quadrupled atmospheric CO2 concentrations (abrupt4 × CO2). For most models and regions, changes in net primary productivity (NPP) are dominated by the increase in CO2, via the CO2 fe…