Search results for "Cloud physics"
showing 10 items of 14 documents
Mixed-Phase Clouds: Progress and Challenges
2017
Mixed-phase clouds represent a three-phase colloidal system consisting of water vapor, ice particles, and coexisting supercooled liquid droplets. Mixed-phase clouds are ubiquitous in the troposphere, occurring at all latitudes from the polar regions to the tropics. Because of their widespread nature, mixed-phase processes play critical roles in the life cycle of clouds, precipitation formation, cloud electrification, and the radiative energy balance on both regional and global scales. Yet, in spite of many decades of observations and theoretical studies, our knowledge and understanding of mixed-phase cloud processes remains incomplete. Mixed-phase clouds are notoriously difficult to represe…
Intercomparison and evaluation of global aerosol microphysical properties among AeroCom models of a range of complexity
2014
Many of the next generation of global climate models will include aerosol schemes which explicitly simulate the microphysical processes that determine the particle size distribution. These models enable aerosol optical properties and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations to be determined by fundamental aerosol processes, which should lead to a more physically based simulation of aerosol direct and indirect radiative forcings. This study examines the global variation in particle size distribution simulated by 12 global aerosol microphysics models to quantify model diversity and to identify any common biases against observations. Evaluation against size distribution measurements from…
In-line holography of cloud volumes applied to the measurement of raindrops and snowflakes
1998
Abstract The ground-based HODAR (HOlographic Droplet and Aerosol Recording) of the University of Mainz has been operational since 1989 on the Kleiner Feldberg Mountain Observatory near Frankfurt/Main, Germany, in a `small volume' configuration. With this setup an air volume of approximately 1 l can be in situ recorded, which allows it to image all aerosol particles and droplets with diameter larger than 6 μm contained in the sample volume in situ. Recently the beam diameter and optical path length of the inline system have been enlarged such that large cloud volumes (approximately 500 l) can be recorded on single holograms. During the holographic image reconstruction step in the laboratory,…
A Theoretical Study of the Wet Removal of Atmospheric Pollutants. Part V: The Uptake, Redistribution, and Deposition of (NM4)4SO4by a Convective Clou…
1995
Abstract The effects of an ice phase on the wet deposition of aerosol particles was studied by means of the authors’ 2D cloud dynamics model with spectral microphysics applied to the Cooperative Convective Precipitation Experiment in Miles City, Montana, on 19 July 1981. The cloud macrostructure as well as the cloud microstructure simulated by the model was found to agree well with observations. Although no on-site observations were available with respect to the chemical composition of the cloud and rain water, the values predicted by the model compared well with typical nearby measurements. The following conclusions can be derived from the model computations: (1) In confirmation of the aut…
Environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) as a new technique to determine the ice nucleation capability of individual atmospheric aerosol par…
2007
Abstract Heterogeneous ice nucleation on synthetic silver iodide, natural kaolinite and montmorillonite particles via condensation, freezing and deposition modes was studied by environmental scanning electron microscopy (ESEM) in the temperature range of 250–270 K. By increasing the H2O pressure in the sample chamber at constant temperature, ice formation can be studied in situ and can be related to the chemical composition of the particles that can be determined simultaneously. For silver iodide and kaolinite, supersaturation values of first ice formation are in good agreement (1–2% absolute) with diffusion chamber experiments. For both substances, threshold temperatures for the condensati…
A New Look at Homogeneous Ice Nucleation in Supercooled Water Drops
1995
Abstract The classical theory for homogeneous ice nucleation in supercooled water is investigated in the light of recent data published in various physico-chemical journal on the physical properties of supercooled water and in the light of recent evidence that the cooperative nature of the hydrogen bonds between water molecules is responsible for a singularity behavior of pure supercooled water at −45°C. Recent rates for homogeneous ice nucleation in supercooled water drops field from field experiments at the cirrus cloud level and from cloud chamber studies were shown to be quantitatively in agreement with the laboratory-derived lowest temperatures to which ultrapure water drops of a given…
The effects of different radiation parametrizations on cloud evolution
1997
With the use of the microphysical stratus model (MISTRA), investigations into the effects of variations in the radiative-transfer parametrizations on cloud development have been undertaken. Two radiative-transfer schemes were coupled with the microphysical-thermodynamical section of MISTRA, one based on the exponential sumfitting method and the other based on the correlated k-distribution method of determining gaseous absorption properties. Model runs were initiated with parameter values in accordance with measurements made over the North Sea and comparisons made between model runs where only the radiation schemes were altered. Results indicated that differences between the two schemes had …
A numerical model of the cloud-topped planetary boundary-layer: Impact of aerosol particles on the radiative forcing of stratiform clouds
1997
In a numerical sensitivity study, the microphysical model of stratus MISTRA, is used to investigate the impact of aerosol particles on the evolution of stratiform clouds. Four model runs are presented, each for a different type of background aerosol. Two include aerosol particle size-distributions which are typical of marine and rural continental air masses; a third represents a mixture of marine and rural continental aerosol particles, and the fourth rural continental aerosol particles with a reduced solubility in water. The results show that the microphysical structure of layer clouds was strongly affected by the physico-chemical properties of the aerosol particles from which the cloud dr…
Numerical sensitivity studies on the impact of aerosol properties and drop freezing modes on the glaciation, microphysics, and dynamics of clouds
2006
[1] Numerical simulations were performed to investigate the effects of drop freezing in immersion and contact modes for a convective situation. For the description of heterogeneous drop freezing, new approaches were used considering the significantly different ice nucleating efficiencies of various ice nuclei. An air parcel model with a sectional two-dimensional description of the cloud microphysics was employed. Sensitivity studies were undertaken by varying the insoluble particle types as well as the soluble fraction of the aerosol particles showing the effects of these parameters on drop freezing and their possible impact on the vertical cloud dynamics. The soluble fraction ɛ decides whe…
A numerical model of the cloud-topped planetary boundary-layer: influence of the physico-chemical properties of aerosol particles on the effective ra…
2000
The present investigation deals with the impact of different aeorosol types on the value of the effective radius of stratiform clouds. In several numerical sensitivity studies with the microphysical stratus model MISTRA, the aerosol composition was linearly changed from pure maritime to pure rural aerosol particles. Numerical results show that in environments with pure maritime aerosols, the effective radius is usually much larger than in continental regions. Values of the effective radius are also time-dependent with minima and maxima during day and night, respectively. In precipitating clouds, the effective radius might achieve values larger than 30 μm. In continental regions, the effecti…