Midlatitude mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with aerosols: how ice processes affect microphysical, dynamic, and thermodynamic development in those clouds and interactions?
<p>Midlatitude mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with aerosols remain poorly understood. This study examines the roles of ice processes in those clouds and their interactions with aerosols using a large-eddy simulation (LES) framework. Cloud mass becomes much lower in the...
| Main Authors: | , , , , , , , , , , , , |
|---|---|
| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2021-11-01
|
| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | https://acp.copernicus.org/articles/21/16843/2021/acp-21-16843-2021.pdf |
| Summary: | <p>Midlatitude mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with
aerosols remain poorly understood. This study examines the roles of ice
processes in those clouds and their interactions with aerosols using a
large-eddy simulation (LES) framework. Cloud mass becomes much lower in the
presence of ice processes and the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen (WBF) mechanism
in the mixed-phase clouds compared to that in warm clouds. This is
because while the WBF mechanism enhances the evaporation of droplets, the
low concentration of aerosols acting as ice-nucleating particles (INPs) and
cloud ice number concentration (CINC) prevent the efficient deposition of
water vapor. Note that the INP concentration in this study is based on the
observed spatiotemporal variability of aerosols. This results in the lower
CINC compared to that with empirical dependence of the INP concentrations
on temperature in a previous study. In the mixed-phase clouds, the
increasing concentration of aerosols that act as cloud condensation nuclei
(CCN) decreases cloud mass by increasing the evaporation of droplets through
the WBF mechanism and decreasing the intensity of updrafts. In contrast to
this, in the warm clouds, the absence of the WBF mechanism makes the
increase in the evaporation of droplets inefficient, eventually enabling
cloud mass to increase with the increasing concentration of aerosols acting
as CCN. Here, the results show that when there is an increasing
concentration of aerosols that act as INPs, the deposition of water vapor is
more efficient than when there is the increasing concentration of aerosols
acting as CCN, which in turn enables cloud mass to increase in the
mixed-phase clouds.</p> |
|---|---|
| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |