Raymond A. Shaw

Preferential concentration of cloud droplets by turbulence : Effects on the early evolution of cumulus cloud droplet spectra

Abstract A mechanism is presented, based on the inherent turbulent nature of cumulus clouds, for the broadening of cloud droplet spectra during condensational growth. This mechanism operates independent of entrainment and, therefore, can operate in adiabatic cloud cores. Cloud droplets of sufficient size are not randomly dispersed in a cloud but are preferentially concentrated in regions of low vorticity in the turbulent flow field. Regions of high vorticity (low droplet concentration) develop higher supersaturation than regions of low vorticity (high droplet concentration). Therefore, on small spatial scales cloud droplets are growing in a strongly fluctuating supersaturation field. These fluctuations in supersaturation exist independent of large-scale vertical velocity fluctuations. Droplets growing in regions of high vorticity will experience enhanced growth rates, allowing some droplets to grow larger than predicted by the classic theory of condensational growth. This mechanism helps to account for tw...

Heterogeneous freezing of droplets with immersed mineral dust particles - measurements and parameterization

During the measurement campaign FROST (FReezing Of duST), LACIS (Leipzig Aerosol Cloud Interaction Simulator) was used to investigate the immersion freezing behavior of size selected, coated and uncoated Arizona Test Dust (ATD) particles with a mobility diameter of 300 nm. Particles were coated with succinic acid (C 4H6O4), sulfuric acid (H2SO4) and ammonium sulfate ((NH 4)2SO4). Ice fractions at mixed-phase cloud temperatures ranging from 233.15 K to 239.15 K ( ±0.60 K) were determined for all types of particles. In this temperature range, pure ATD particles and those coated with C 4H6O4 or small amounts of H2SO4 were found to be the most efficient ice nuclei (IN). ATD particles coated with (NH4)2SO4 were the most inefficient IN. Since the supercooled droplets were highly diluted before freezing occurred, a freezing point suppression due to the soluble material on the particles (and therefore in the droplets) cannot explain this observation. Therefore, it is reasonable to assume that the coatings lead to particle surface alterations which cause the differences in the IN abilities. Two different theoretical approaches based on the stochastic and the singular hypotheses were applied to clarify and parameterize the freezing behavior of the particles investigated. Both approaches describe the experimentally determined results, yielding parameters that can subsequently be used to compare our results to those from other studies. HowCorrespondence to: D. Niedermeier (niederm@tropos.de) ever, we cannot clarify at the current state which of the two approaches correctly describes the investigated immersion freezing process. But both approaches confirm the assumption that the coatings lead to particle surface modifications lowering the nucleation efficiency. The stochastic approach interprets the reduction in nucleation rate from coating as primarily due to an increase in the thermodynamic barrier for ice formation (i.e., changes in interfacial free energies). The singular approach interprets the reduction as resulting from a reduced surface density of active sites.

Scale-dependent droplet clustering in turbulent clouds

The current understanding of fundamental processes in atmospheric clouds, such as nucleation, droplet growth, and the onset of precipitation (collision–coalescence), is based on the assumption that droplets in undiluted clouds are distributed in space in a perfectly random manner, i.e. droplet positions are independently distributed with uniform probability. We have analysed data from a homogeneous cloud core to test this assumption and gain an understanding of the nature of droplet transport. This is done by examining one-dimensional cuts through clouds, using a theory originally developed for x-ray scattering by liquids, and obtaining statistics of droplet spacing. The data reveal droplet clustering even in cumulus cloud cores free of entrained ambient air. By relating the variance of droplet counts to the integral of the pair correlation function, we detect a systematic, scale-dependent clustering signature. The extracted signal evolves from sub- to super-Poissonian as the length scale increases. The sub-Poisson tail observed below mm-scales is a result of finite droplet size and instrument resolution. Drawing upon an analogy with the hard-sphere potential from the theory of liquids, this sub-Poisson part of the signal can be effectively removed. The remaining part displays unambiguous clustering at mm- and cm-scales. Failure to detect this phenomenon until now is a result of the previously unappreciated cumulative nature, or ‘memory,’ of the common measures of droplet clustering.

Homogeneous and Inhomogeneous Mixing in Cumulus Clouds: Dependence on Local Turbulence Structure

Abstract The helicopter-borne instrument payload known as the Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System (ACTOS) was used to study the entrainment and mixing processes in shallow warm cumulus clouds. The characteristics of the mixing process are determined by the Damkohler number, defined as the ratio of the mixing and a thermodynamic reaction time scale. The definition of the reaction time scale is refined by investigating the relationship between the droplet evaporation time and the phase relaxation time. Following arguments of classical turbulence theory, it is concluded that the description of the mixing process through a single Damkohler number is not sufficient and instead the concept of a transition length scale is introduced. The transition length scale separates the inertial subrange into a range of length scales for which mixing between ambient dry and cloudy air is inhomogeneous, and a range for which the mixing is homogeneous. The new concept is tested on the ACTOS dataset. The effect of ent...

Crystal structure, stable isotopes (δ18O), and development of sea ice in the Ross, Amundsen, and Bellingshausen seas, Antarctica

The crystal structure and oxygen isotopic composition of ice cores obtained from floes at the end of summer in the eastern Ross Sea, the Amundsen Sea, and the western Bellingshausen Sea were investigated to determine the ice growth processes and conditions that contribute to sea ice development in the eastern Pacific sector of the southern ocean. The isotope data indicate that a moderate amount of snow contributes to the development of the sea ice. However, even the combined use of isotopes and crystal structure analysis does not unambiguously explain the means by which all of the snow is entrained in the ice. Nevertheless, it seems clear that much of the snow is contained in granular snow-ice that results from seawater flooding of floes and the base of the snow cover. The snow cover in the Ross-Amundsen region was as much as 2 m deep and supported by 7- to 8-m-thick floes primarily composed of frazil ice. In the Bellingshausen region the snow cover and the floes were thinner than in the Ross-Amundsen region. The Bellingshausen cores were composed primarily of multiple layers of frazil and congelation ice. In addition, in both regions there were numerous tipped or inclined blocks of congelation ice and layers of rafted nilas in the cores. The data indicate that the sea ice develops by multiple mechanisms in a turbulent environment.

Can We Understand Clouds Without Turbulence

Advances at the interface between atmospheric and turbulence research are helping to elucidate fundamental properties of clouds. Just over 50 years ago, Henry Houghton published an essay in Science entitled “Cloud physics: Not all questions about nucleation, growth, and precipitation of water particles are yet answered” (1). Since then, understanding of cloud processes has advanced enormously, yet we still face some of the basic questions Houghton drew attention to. The interest in finding the answers, however, has steadily increased, largely because clouds are a primary source of uncertainty in projections of future climate (2). Why is our understanding of cloud processes still so inadequate, and what are the prospects for the future?

Structural characteristics of congelation and platelet ice and their role in the development of Antarctic land-fast sea ice

Ice cores were obtained in January 1990 from the land-fast ice in McMurdo Sound for a study of variations in texture, fabric, sub-structure, composition and development. Two primary ice types were observed, congelation and platelet, with a minor amount of frazil ice. Congelation ice growth precedes platelet-ice accretion. Congelation-ice fabrics show frequent moderate to strong alignments, a phenomenon believed to be due to water-current control of selective ice-crystal growth. Platelet ice originates at the base of the congelation ice, initially as a porous latticework of tabular ice crystals which subsequently consolidate by congelation of the interstitial water. Interstitial congelation-ice fabrics generally have little or no alignment, indicating the reduced effect of currents within the platelet latticework prior to solidification. Platelet-crystal textures range from small, wavy-edged forms to large, blade-like forms. Platelet-crystal fabrics indicate that, in addition to being randomly oriented, the platelet latticeworks commonly include many crystals with their flat (0001) faces oriented both parallel and normal to the base of the overlying ice. Plate-width data suggest that the interstitial congelation ice-growth rates remain similar to those of the overlying congelation ice. This effective increase in growth rates probably happens because the latticework of accumulating platelets ahead of the freezing interface ensures that the water within the platelet layer is at the freezing point and less heat has to be removed from platelet-rich water than from platelet-free water for a given thickness of congelation ice to grow. The negative oceanic heat flux associated with platelet-ice formation in McMurdo Sound explains why McMurdo Sound fast ice is thicker than Ross Sea pack ice, and also why it reaches a greater thickness than Arctic fast ice grown in a similar polar marine climate. Plate widths in the McMurdo Sound congelation ice suggest, however, that it grows no faster than Arctic congelation ice.

Probing Finescale Dynamics and Microphysics of Clouds with Helicopter-Borne Measurements

Abstract Helicopter-based measurements provide an opportunity for probing the finescale dynamics and microphysics of clouds simultaneously in space and time. Due to the low true air speed compared with research aircraft, a helicopter allows for measurements with much higher spatial resolution. To circumvent the influence of the helicopter downwash the autonomous measurement pay-load Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System (ACTOS) is carried as an external cargo 140 m below the helicopter. ACTOS allows for collocated measurements of the dynamical and cloud microphysical parameters with a spatial resolution of better than 10 cm. The interaction between turbulence and cloud microphysical processes is demonstrated using the following two cloud cases from recent helicopter measurements: i) a cumulus cloud with a low degree of turbulence and without strong vertical dynamics, and, in contrast, ii) an actively growing cloud with increased turbulence and stronger updrafts. The turbulence and microphysical mea...

Fluctuations and Luck in Droplet Growth by Coalescence

After the initial rapid growth by condensation, further growth of a cloud droplet is punctuated by coalescence events. Such a growth process is essentially stochastic. Yet, computational approaches to this problem dominate and transparent quantitative theory remains elusive. The stochastic coalescence problem is revisited and it is shown, via simple back-of-the-envelope results, that regardless of the initial size, the fastest one-in-a-million droplets, required for warm rain initiation, grow about 10 times faster than the average droplet. While approximate, the development presented herein is based on a realistic expression for the rate of coalescence. The results place a lower bound on the relative velocity of neighboring droplets, necessary for warm rain initiation. Such velocity differences may arise from a variety of physical mechanisms. As an example, turbulent shear is considered and it is argued that even in the most pessimistic case of a cloud composed of single-sized droplets, rain can still for...

Practical methods for automated reconstruction and characterization of particles in digital in-line holograms

Hologram reconstruction algorithms often undersample the phase in propagation kernels for typical parameters of holographic optical setups. Given in this paper is an algorithm that addresses this phase undersampling in reconstructing digital in-line holograms of particles for these typical parameters. This algorithm has a lateral sample spacing constant in reconstruction distance, has a diffraction limited resolution, and can be implemented with computational speeds comparable to the fastest of other reconstruction algorithms. This algorithm is shown to be accurate by testing with analytical solutions to the Huygens–Fresnel propagation integral. A low-pass filter can be applied to enforce a uniform minimum particle size detection limit throughout a sample volume, allowing this method to be useful in measuring particle size distributions and number densities. Tens of thousands of holograms of cloud ice particles are digitally reconstructed using the algorithm discussed. Positions of ice particles in the size range of 20 µm–1.5 mm are obtained using an algorithm that accurately finds the position of large and small particles along the optical axis. The digital reconstruction and particle characterization algorithms are implemented in an automated fashion with no user intervention on a computer cluster. Strategies for efficient algorithm implementation on a computer cluster are discussed.