scholarly journals An Investigation of the Influence of Droplet Number Concentration and Giant Aerosol Particles upon Supercooled Large Drop Formation in Wintertime Stratiform Clouds

2008 ◽  
Vol 47 (10) ◽  
pp. 2659-2678 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Lasher-Trapp ◽  
Sarah Anderson-Bereznicki ◽  
Ashley Shackelford ◽  
Cynthia H. Twohy ◽  
James G. Hudson
Keyword(s):  
Particle Number ◽  
Aerosol Particles ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Droplet Concentration ◽  
Warm Rain ◽  
Stratiform Clouds ◽  
Initial Comparison ◽  
Warm Rain Process ◽  
Small Cloud

Abstract Supercooled large drops (SLD) can be a significant hazard for aviation. Past studies have shown that warm-rain processes are prevalent, or even dominant, in stratiform clouds containing SLD, but the primary factors that control SLD production are still not well understood. Giant aerosol particles have been shown to accelerate the formation of the first drizzle drops in some clouds and thus are a viable source of SLD, but observational support for testing their effectiveness in supercooled stratiform clouds has been lacking. In this study, new observations collected during six research flights from the Alliance Icing Research Study II (AIRS II) are analyzed to assess the factors that may be relevant to SLD formation, with a particular emphasis on the importance of giant aerosol particles. An initial comparison of observed giant aerosol particle number concentrations with the observed SLD suggests that they were present in sufficient numbers to be the source of the SLD. However, microphysical calculations within an adiabatic parcel model, initialized with the observed aerosol distributions and cloud properties, suggest that the giant aerosol particles were only a limited source of SLD. More SLD was produced in the modeled clouds with low droplet concentrations, simply by an efficient warm-rain process acting at temperatures below 0°C. For cases in which the warm-rain process is limited by a higher droplet concentration and small cloud depth/liquid water content, the giant aerosol particles were then the only source of SLD. The modeling results are consistent with the observed trends in SLD across the six AIRS II cases.

scholarly journals Improving the treatment of subgrid cloud variability in warm rain simulation in CESM2

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Hao Wang ◽  
Minghuai Wang ◽  
Daniel Rosenfeld ◽  
Yannian Zhu ◽  
Zhibo Zhang
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Water ◽  
Climate Models ◽  
Global Climate ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Global Climate Models ◽  
Liquid Water Path ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Warm Rain ◽  
Rain Simulation ◽  
Warm Rain Process

<p>Representing subgrid variability of cloud properties has always been a challenge in global climate models (GCMs). In microphysics schemes, the effects of subgrid cloud variability on warm rain process rates calculated based on mean cloud properties are usually accounted for by scaling process rates by an enhancement factor (EF) that is derived from the subgrid variance of cloud water. In our study, we find that the EF derived from Cloud Layers Unified by Binormals (CLUBB) in Community Earth System Model Version 2 (CESM2) is severely overestimated in most of the oceanic areas, which leads to the strong overestimation in the autoconversion rate. Through an EF formula based on empirical fitting of MODIS, we improve the EF in the liquid phase clouds. Results show that the model has a more reasonable relationship between autoconversion rate, cloud liquid water content (LWC), and droplet number concentration (CDNC) in warm rain simulation. The annual mean liquid cloud fraction (LCF), liquid water path (LWP), and CDNC show obvious increases for marine stratocumulus, where the probability of precipitation (POP) shows an obvious decrease. The annual mean LCF, cloud optical thickness (COT), and shortwave cloud forcing (SWCF) match better with observation. The sensitivity of LWP to aerosol decreases obviously. The sensitivities of LCF, LWP, cloud top droplet effective radius (CER), and COT to aerosol are in better agreement with MODIS, but the model still underestimates the response of cloud albedo to aerosol. These results indicate the importance of representing reasonable subgrid cloud variabilities in the simulation of cloud properties and aerosol-cloud interaction in climate models.</p>

scholarly journals New Hailstone Physics. Part II: Interaction of the Variables

2014 ◽  
Vol 71 (6) ◽  
pp. 2114-2129 ◽  
Author(s):  
Roland List
Keyword(s):  
Surface Temperature ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Mass Fraction ◽  
Radial Growth ◽  
Collection Efficiency ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Skin Thickness ◽  
Warm Rain ◽  
Cloud Models ◽  
Warm Rain Process

Abstract The reduction of parameter dimensions in Part I is complemented by the compaction of parameter space in Part II. The range of diameters is 0.5 ≤ D ≤ 8 cm, and the assumed liquid water content varies within 1 ≤ Wf ≤ 3 for dry growth and Wf ≤ 6 g m−3 for shedding. Entirely new data throw new light onto HMT and growth. Results are as follows: (i) dry growth is unimportant, since most hailstones grow spongy; (ii) radial growth is slow for dry and fast for spongy growth because less latent heat of freezing needs to be discarded if a smaller portion of the accreted water is frozen: this growth with shedding is particularly effective if the product Y of the net collection efficiency and ice mass fraction of the deposit is 0.2 ≤ Y ≤ 0.6; (iii) the lowest possible surface temperature tS for dry growth is −32.3°C. For water-skin-covered, spongy particles tS > −5°C, and tS > −0.55°C for shedding from wet surfaces without water skins; and (iv) the interplay between water-skin thickness and surface temperature allows interconnection of all variables. However, new icing experiments are necessary to prove the proposed sphere growth by special gyration, to quantify the components of Y, and to address water-skin properties and growth. Radically redesigned dynamic cloud models need to incorporate hail packaging and rain spectra evolution in clouds. The latter will connect hailstone shedding with a warm rain process that is parallel to and interacts with hail formation.

Giant and Ultragiant Aerosol Particle Variability over the Eastern Great Lakes Region

2007 ◽  
Vol 46 (5) ◽  
pp. 651-659 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sonia Lasher-Trapp ◽  
Justin P. Stachnik
Keyword(s):  
Great Lakes ◽  
Research Study ◽  
Aerosol Particles ◽  
Lower Atmosphere ◽  
Great Lakes Region ◽  
Central Question ◽  
Future Studies ◽  
Warm Rain ◽  
Weather Modeling ◽  
Warm Rain Process

Abstract Numerous studies have indicated the potential for giant and ultragiant aerosol particles to expedite the warm-rain process as a result of their extreme sizes. The central question regarding their importance is, Are they present in large enough numbers to influence the microphysics of the clouds significantly? Thus, quantification of these particles and their variability is paramount. New observations collected during the second Alliance Icing Research Study (AIRS II) are presented as evidence of the presence and variability of giant and ultragiant aerosol particles over a continental region—in this case, within the eastern Great Lakes region and parts of the midwestern United States and Canada during one month in winter 2003. Sources and factors contributing to the amount of these particles observed in the lower atmosphere were difficult to identify separately; future studies incorporating high-resolution weather modeling are likely needed.

scholarly journals Airborne measurements of trace gas and aerosol particle emissions from biomass burning in Amazonia

2005 ◽  
Vol 5 (11) ◽  
pp. 2989-3002 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Guyon ◽  
G. P. Frank ◽  
M. Welling ◽  
D. Chand ◽  
P. Artaxo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Large Scale ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Aerosol Particles ◽  
Secondary Growth ◽  
Combustion Efficiency ◽  
Vertical Transport ◽  
Airborne Measurements ◽  
Sampling Campaign ◽  
Wide Range ◽  
Emission Ratios

Abstract. As part of the LBA-SMOCC (Large-Scale Biosphere-Atmosphere Experiment in Amazonia - Smoke, Aerosols, Clouds, Rainfall, and Climate) 2002 campaign, we studied the emission of carbon monoxide (CO), carbon dioxide (CO2), and aerosol particles from Amazonian deforestation fires using an instrumented aircraft. Emission ratios for aerosol number (CN) relative to CO (ERCN/CO) fell in the range 14-32 cm-3 ppb-1 in most of the investigated smoke plumes. Particle number emission ratios have to our knowledge not been previously measured in tropical deforestation fires, but our results are in agreement with values usually found from tropical savanna fires. The number of particles emitted per amount biomass burned was found to be dependent on the fire conditions (combustion efficiency). Variability in ERCN/CO between fires was similar to the variability caused by variations in combustion behavior within each individual fire. This was confirmed by observations of CO-to-CO2 emission ratios (ERCO/CO2), which stretched across the same wide range of values for individual fires as for all the fires observed during the sampling campaign, reflecting the fact that flaming and smoldering phases are present simultaneously in deforestation fires. Emission factors (EF) for CO and aerosol particles were computed and a correction was applied for the residual smoldering combustion (RSC) fraction of emissions that are not sampled by the aircraft, which increased the EF by a factor of 1.5-2.1. Vertical transport of smoke from the boundary layer (BL) to the cloud detrainment layer (CDL) and the free troposphere (FT) was found to be a very common phenomenon. We observed a 20% loss in particle number as a result of this vertical transport and subsequent cloud processing, attributable to in-cloud coagulation. This small loss fraction suggests that this mode of transport is very efficient in terms of particle numbers and occurs mostly via non-precipitating clouds. The detrained aerosol particles released in the CDL and FT were larger than in the unprocessed smoke, mostly due to coagulation and secondary growth, and therefore more efficient at scattering radiation and nucleating cloud droplets. This process may have significant atmospheric implications on a regional and larger scale.

scholarly journals Machine Learning the Warm Rain Process

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrew Gettelman ◽  
David John Gagne ◽  
Chih-Chieh Chen ◽  
Matthew Christensen ◽  
Zachary Lebo ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Machine Learning ◽  
Warm Rain ◽  
Warm Rain Process

scholarly journals Cloud activation properties of aerosol particles in a continental Central European urban environment

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (14) ◽  
pp. 11289-11302
Author(s):  
Imre Salma ◽  
Wanda Thén ◽  
Máté Vörösmarty ◽  
András Zénó Gyöngyösi
Keyword(s):  
Chemical Composition ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽  
Aerosol Particles ◽  
Number Concentration ◽  
Urban Aerosol ◽  
Condensation Nuclei ◽  
Frequency Distributions ◽  
Remote Locations ◽  
Cloud Activation

Abstract. Collocated measurements using a condensation particle counter, differential mobility particle sizer and cloud condensation nuclei counter were realised in parallel in central Budapest from 15 April 2019 to 14 April 2020 to gain insight into the cloud activation properties of urban aerosol particles. The median total particle number concentration was 10.1 × 103 cm−3. The median concentrations of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) at water vapour supersaturation (S) values of 0.1 %, 0.2 %, 0.3 %, 0.5 % and 1.0 % were 0.59, 1.09, 1.39, 1.80 and 2.5 × 103 cm−3, respectively. The CCN concentrations represented 7–27 % of all particles. The CCN concentrations were considerably larger but the activation fractions were systematically substantially smaller than observed in regional or remote locations. The effective critical dry particle diameters (dc,eff) were derived utilising the CCN concentrations and particle number size distributions. Their median values at the five supersaturation values considered were 207, 149, 126, 105 and 80 nm, respectively; all of these diameters were positioned within the accumulation mode of the typical particle number size distribution. Their frequency distributions revealed a single peak for which the geometric standard deviation increased monotonically with S. This broadening indicated high time variability in the activating properties of smaller particles. The frequency distributions also showed fine structure, with several compositional elements that seemed to reveal a consistent or monotonical tendency with S. The relationships between the critical S and dc,eff suggest that urban aerosol particles in Budapest with diameters larger than approximately 130 nm showed similar hydroscopicity to corresponding continental aerosol particles, whereas smaller particles in Budapest were less hygroscopic than corresponding continental aerosol particles. Only modest seasonal cycling in CCN concentrations and activation fractions was seen, and only for large S values. This cycling likely reflects changes in the number concentration, chemical composition and mixing state of the particles. The seasonal dependencies of dc,eff were featureless, indicating that the droplet activation properties of the urban particles remained more or less the same throughout the year. This is again different from what is seen in non-urban locations. Hygroscopicity parameters (κ values) were computed without determining the time-dependent chemical composition of the particles. The median values for κ were 0.15, 0.10, 0.07, 0.04 and 0.02, respectively, at the five supersaturation values considered. The averages suggested that the larger particles were considerably more hygroscopic than the smaller particles. We found that the κ values for the urban aerosol were substantially smaller than those previously reported for aerosols in regional or remote locations. All of these characteristics can be linked to the specific source composition of particles in cities. The relatively large variability in the hygroscopicity parameters for a given S emphasises that the individual values represent the CCN population in ambient air while the average hygroscopicity parameter mainly corresponds to particles with sizes close to the effective critical dry particle diameter.

scholarly journals Effects of cosmic ray decreases on cloud microphysics

2012 ◽  
Vol 12 (2) ◽  
pp. 3595-3617 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Svensmark ◽  
M. B. Enghoff ◽  
H. Svensmark
Keyword(s):  
Cloud Condensation Nuclei ◽  
Cosmic Ray ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Total Solar Irradiance ◽  
Cloud Microphysics ◽  
Forbush Decreases ◽  
Cloud Data ◽  
Sigma Level ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Simple Equations

Abstract. Using cloud data from MODIS we investigate the response of cloud microphysics to sudden decreases in galactic cosmic radiation – Forbush decreases – and find responses in effective emissivity, cloud fraction, liquid water content, and optical thickness above the 2–3 sigma level 6–9 days after the minimum in atmospheric ionization and less significant responses for effective radius and cloud condensation nuclei (<2 sigma). The magnitude of the signals agree with derived values, based on simple equations for atmospheric parameters. Furthermore principal components analysis gives a total significance of the signal of 3.1 sigma. We also see a correlation between total solar irradiance and strong Forbush decreases but a clear mechanism connecting this to cloud properties is lacking. There is no signal in the UV radiation. The responses of the parameters correlate linearly with the reduction in the cosmic ray ionization. These results support the suggestion that ions play a significant role in the life-cycle of clouds.

scholarly journals Size-resolved particle number emissions in Beijing determined from measured particle size distributions

2020 ◽  
Vol 20 (19) ◽  
pp. 11329-11348 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jenni Kontkanen ◽  
Chenjuan Deng ◽  
Yueyun Fu ◽  
Lubna Dada ◽  
Ying Zhou ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Particle Size ◽  
Air Quality ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Aerosol Particles ◽  
Urban Environments ◽  
Integrated Assessment Model ◽  
Assessment Model ◽  
Size Distributions ◽  
Particle Size Distributions ◽  
Measured Particle

Abstract. The climate and air quality effects of aerosol particles depend on the number and size of the particles. In urban environments, a large fraction of aerosol particles originates from anthropogenic emissions. To evaluate the effects of different pollution sources on air quality, knowledge of size distributions of particle number emissions is needed. Here we introduce a novel method for determining size-resolved particle number emissions, based on measured particle size distributions. We apply our method to data measured in Beijing, China, to determine the number size distribution of emitted particles in a diameter range from 2 to 1000 nm. The observed particle number emissions are dominated by emissions of particles smaller than 30 nm. Our results suggest that traffic is the major source of particle number emissions with the highest emissions observed for particles around 10 nm during rush hours. At sizes below 6 nm, clustering of atmospheric vapors contributes to calculated emissions. The comparison between our calculated emissions and those estimated with an integrated assessment model GAINS (Greenhouse Gas and Air Pollution Interactions and Synergies) shows that our method yields clearly higher particle emissions at sizes below 60 nm, but at sizes above that the two methods agree well. Overall, our method is proven to be a useful tool for gaining new knowledge of the size distributions of particle number emissions in urban environments and for validating emission inventories and models. In the future, the method will be developed by modeling the transport of particles from different sources to obtain more accurate estimates of particle number emissions.

scholarly journals Seasonality of the particle number concentration and size distribution: a global analysis retrieved from the network of Global Atmosphere Watch (GAW) near-surface observatories

2021 ◽  
Vol 21 (22) ◽  
pp. 17185-17223
Author(s):  
Clémence Rose ◽  
Martine Collaud Coen ◽  
Elisabeth Andrews ◽  
Yong Lin ◽  
Isaline Bossert ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Seasonal Variations ◽  
Particle Number ◽  
Aerosol Particles ◽  
Number Concentration ◽  
Data Availability ◽  
Diel Cycle ◽  
Particle Number Concentration ◽  
Near Surface ◽  
Diel Cycles ◽  
The Impact

Abstract. Aerosol particles are a complex component of the atmospheric system which influence climate directly by interacting with solar radiation, and indirectly by contributing to cloud formation. The variety of their sources, as well as the multiple transformations they may undergo during their transport (including wet and dry deposition), result in significant spatial and temporal variability of their properties. Documenting this variability is essential to provide a proper representation of aerosols and cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) in climate models. Using measurements conducted in 2016 or 2017 at 62 ground-based stations around the world, this study provides the most up-to-date picture of the spatial distribution of particle number concentration (Ntot) and number size distribution (PNSD, from 39 sites). A sensitivity study was first performed to assess the impact of data availability on Ntot's annual and seasonal statistics, as well as on the analysis of its diel cycle. Thresholds of 50 % and 60 % were set at the seasonal and annual scale, respectively, for the study of the corresponding statistics, and a slightly higher coverage (75 %) was required to document the diel cycle. Although some observations are common to a majority of sites, the variety of environments characterizing these stations made it possible to highlight contrasting findings, which, among other factors, seem to be significantly related to the level of anthropogenic influence. The concentrations measured at polar sites are the lowest (∼ 102 cm−3) and show a clear seasonality, which is also visible in the shape of the PNSD, while diel cycles are in general less evident, due notably to the absence of a regular day–night cycle in some seasons. In contrast, the concentrations characteristic of urban environments are the highest (∼ 103–104 cm−3) and do not show pronounced seasonal variations, whereas diel cycles tend to be very regular over the year at these stations. The remaining sites, including mountain and non-urban continental and coastal stations, do not exhibit as obvious common behaviour as polar and urban sites and display, on average, intermediate Ntot (∼ 102–103 cm−3). Particle concentrations measured at mountain sites, however, are generally lower compared to nearby lowland sites, and tend to exhibit somewhat more pronounced seasonal variations as a likely result of the strong impact of the atmospheric boundary layer (ABL) influence in connection with the topography of the sites. ABL dynamics also likely contribute to the diel cycle of Ntot observed at these stations. Based on available PNSD measurements, CCN-sized particles (considered here as either >50 nm or >100 nm) can represent from a few percent to almost all of Ntot, corresponding to seasonal medians on the order of ∼ 10 to 1000 cm−3, with seasonal patterns and a hierarchy of the site types broadly similar to those observed for Ntot. Overall, this work illustrates the importance of in situ measurements, in particular for the study of aerosol physical properties, and thus strongly supports the development of a broad global network of near surface observatories to increase and homogenize the spatial coverage of the measurements, and guarantee as well data availability and quality. The results of this study also provide a valuable, freely available and easy to use support for model comparison and validation, with the ultimate goal of contributing to improvement of the representation of aerosol–cloud interactions in models, and, therefore, of the evaluation of the impact of aerosol particles on climate.

scholarly journals Distance-Scaled Water Concentrations versus Mass-Median Drop Size, Temperature, and Altitude in Supercooled Clouds

2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (7) ◽  
pp. 2087-2106 ◽  
Author(s):  
Richard K. Jeck
Keyword(s):  
Stable Condition ◽  
Liquid Water Content ◽  
Common Reference ◽  
Freezing Level ◽  
Convective Clouds ◽  
Stratiform Clouds ◽  
Median Diameter ◽  
Droplet Sizes ◽  
New Statistics ◽  
Mass Median

Abstract About 28 000 nautical miles (n mi) of select in-flight measurements of liquid water content (LWC), droplet sizes, temperature, and other variables in supercooled clouds from a variety of research projects over portions of North America, Europe, and the northern oceans have been compiled into a computerized database for obtaining new statistics on the ranges, frequency of occurrence, and interrelationships of the variables. The LWCs are averaged over uniform cloud intervals of variable length. LWC probabilities are then generated as a function of averaging distance, temperature, droplet mass-median diameter (MMD), altitude, and freezing-level height. These variously scaled LWCs (different averaging intervals from 1 s to 200 n mi) are easily accommodated by distance-based graphing (LWC versus averaging distance). These graphs provide realistic LWCs for modeling, and they can serve as a common reference for comparing LWC measurements over any averaging scale. Maximum recorded LWCs are about 1.6 g m−3 in stratiform clouds and about 5 g m−3 in convective clouds, both over short (&lt;0.5 km) distances. A sharp MMD mode near 15 μm appears to be a stable condition in which the LWCs can be the largest and extend the farthest. The larger the MMD above the mode, the shorter its spatial extent will be, the rarer its occurrence, and the lower the maximum LWC that can be present.

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