The role of ice nuclei recycling in the maintenance of cloud ice in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus
This study investigates the maintenance of cloud ice production in Arctic mixed-phase stratocumulus in large eddy simulations that include a prognostic ice nuclei (IN) formulation and a diurnal cycle. Balances derived from a mixed-layer model and phase analyses are used to provide insight into buffe...
| Main Authors: | , , |
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| Format: | Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
Copernicus Publications
2015-09-01
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| Series: | Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics |
| Online Access: | http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/15/10631/2015/acp-15-10631-2015.pdf |
| Summary: | This study investigates the maintenance of cloud ice production in Arctic
mixed-phase stratocumulus in large eddy simulations that include a
prognostic ice nuclei (IN) formulation and a diurnal cycle. Balances derived
from a mixed-layer model and phase analyses are used to provide insight into
buffering mechanisms that maintain ice in these cloud systems. We find that,
for the case under investigation, IN recycling through subcloud sublimation
considerably prolongs ice production over a multi-day integration. This
effective source of IN to the cloud dominates over mixing sources from above
or below the cloud-driven mixed layer. Competing feedbacks between dynamical
mixing and recycling are found to slow the rate of ice lost from the mixed
layer when a diurnal cycle is simulated. The results of this study have
important implications for maintaining phase partitioning of cloud ice and
liquid that determine the radiative forcing of Arctic mixed-phase clouds. |
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| ISSN: | 1680-7316 1680-7324 |