Search results for "Graupel"

The Effect of Turbulence on the Accretional Growth of Graupel

2019

Abstract Wind tunnel experiments were carried out to investigate the influence of turbulence on the collection kernel of graupel. The collection kernel defines the growth rate of a graupel accreting supercooled droplets as it falls through a cloud. The ambient conditions were similar to those occurring typically in the mixed-phase zone of convective clouds, that is, at temperatures between −7° and −16°C and with liquid water contents from 0.5 to 1.3 g m−3. Tethered spherical collectors with radii between 220 and 340 μm were exposed in a flow carrying supercooled droplets with a mean volume radius of 10 μm. The vertical root-mean-square fluctuation velocity, the dissipation rate, and the Tay…

3-D imaging and quantification of graupel porosity by synchrotron-based micro-tomography

2011

The air bubble structure is an important parameter to determine the radiation properties of graupel and hailstones. For 3-D imaging of this structure at micron resolution, a cryo-stage was developed. This stage was used at the tomography beamline of the Swiss Light Source (SLS) synchrotron facility. The cryo-stage setup provides for the first time 3-D-data on the individual pore morphology of ice particles down to infrared wavelength resolution. In the present study, both sub-mm size natural and artificial ice particles rimed in a wind tunnel were investigated. In the natural rimed ice particles, Y-shaped air-filled closed pores were found. When kept for half an hour at −8 °C, this morpholo…

Application Of Microholography for Ground-based In Situ Measurements in Stratus Cloud Layers: A Case Study

1993

Abstract A holographic droplet and aerosol recording system (HODAR) has been designed and operated in situ in a low-level stratus cloud layer adopting the Fraunhofer in-line technique to measure sizes and velocity vectors of cloud droplets as well as to determine sizes and shapes of other hydrometeors (e.g., graupel). The particle-size radii covered by this ground-based instrument range from three to several hundred micrometers. A case study conducted on the Kleiner Feldberg Mountain Observatory near Frankfurt, Germany, during November 1990 documents the temporal evolution of the cloud-droplet size distribution over a period of 19 h during which the size distribution changed from monomodal …

Riming of Graupel: Wind Tunnel Investigations of Collection Kernels and Growth Regimes

2009

Abstract Laboratory experiments were carried out in the vertical wind tunnel in Mainz, Germany, to study the collision coalescence growth of single spherical ice particles having initial radii between 290 and 380 μm while they were freely floated in a laminar flow containing a cloud of supercooled droplets with radii between 10 and 20 μm. The experiments were performed in a temperature range between −8 and −12°C, where riming proceeds in the atmosphere, and with cloud liquid water contents lying between 0.9 and 1.6 g m−3 (i.e., values typically found in mixed-phase clouds). The collection kernels were calculated from the mass increase of the rimed ice particles and the average liquid water …

Cloud Particle Interactions

2010

In Chapter 10, we discussed the behavior of isolated cloud particles in sorne detai1. Now we shall consider their hydrodynamic interactions, with a view to providing a quantitative assessment of the processes of particle growth by collision and coalescence, and of collisional breakup. We shall first treat the collision problem for drops of radii less than about 500 μm which, in accordance with our previous description of drop distortion in Section 10.3.2, may be regarded as rigid spheres (at least when falling in isolation). This will be followed by a discussion of the phenomena of drop coalescence and breakup. Finally, we shall consider water drop-ice crystal and ice crystal-ice crystal in…

A Comprehensive Observational Study of Graupel and Hail Terminal Velocity, Mass Flux, and Kinetic Energy

2018

Abstract This study uses novel approaches to estimate the fall characteristics of hail, covering a size range from about 0.5 to 7 cm, and the drag coefficients of lump and conical graupel. Three-dimensional (3D) volume scans of 60 hailstones of sizes from 2.5 to 6.7 cm were printed in three dimensions using acrylonitrile butadiene styrene (ABS) plastic, and their terminal velocities were measured in the Mainz, Germany, vertical wind tunnel. To simulate lump graupel, 40 of the hailstones were printed with maximum dimensions of about 0.2, 0.3, and 0.5 cm, and their terminal velocities were measured. Conical graupel, whose three dimensions (maximum dimension 0.1–1 cm) were estimated from an an…

2014

Abstract. Dynamical and microphysical processes in pyroconvective clouds in mid-latitude conditions are investigated using idealized three-dimensional simulations with the Active Tracer High resolution Atmospheric Model (ATHAM). A state-of-the-art two-moment microphysical scheme building upon a realistic parameterization of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) activation has been implemented in order to study the influence of aerosol concentration on cloud development. The results show that aerosol concentration influences the formation of precipitation. For low aerosol concentrations (NCN = 200 cm−3), rain droplets are rapidly formed by autoconversion of cloud droplets. This also triggers the f…