Aerosol- and updraft-limited regimes of cloud droplet formation: Influence of particle number, size and hygroscopicity on the activation of cloud con…

2009

We have investigated the formation of cloud droplets under pyro-convective conditions using a cloud parcel model with detailed spectral microphysics and with the κ-Köhler model approach for efficient and realistic description of the cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) activity of aerosol particles. Assuming a typical biomass burning aerosol size distribution (accumulation mode centred at 120 nm), we have calculated initial cloud droplet number concentrations (<i>N<sub>CD</sub></i>) for a wide range of updraft velocities (<i>w</i>=0.25–20 m s<sup>−1</sup>) and aerosol particle number concentrations (<i>N<sub>CN</sub>&lt…