Supersaturations, microphysics and nitric acid partitioning in a cold cirrus cloud observed during CR-AVE 2006

An observation–modelling intercomparison study

Datos Bibliográficos

ID15548601
AutoresIulia Gensch (0000-0001-5235-4925, Forschungszentrum Jülich, autor de correspondencia), I V Gensch, H Bunz (FZI Research Center for Information Technology), Darrel Baumgardner (0000-0002-3296-3085, Universidad Nacional Autonoma de Mexico), D G Baumgardner, L E Christensen (0000-0001-8107-2732, Jet Propulsion Laboratory), D W Fahey (0000-0003-1720-0634, NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory), R L Herman (0000-0001-7063-6424, Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Peter Popp (NOAA Earth System Research Laboratory), P J Popp, J B Smith (0000-0001-9771-9940, Harvard University), R F Troy (Jet Propulsion Laboratory), Christopher R Webster (0000-0003-3448-9783, Jet Propulsion Laboratory), E M Weinstock (Harvard University), J C Wilson (0000-0003-4699-5827, University of Colorado Denver), Thomas Peter (0000-0002-7218-7156, ETH Zurich), Martina Krämer (0000-0002-2888-1722, Forschungszentrum Jülich)
Año2008
Volumen3
Número3
Páginas035003-035003
Fecha de publicación2008-07-01
Peer ReviewedSí
Open AccessSí
TipoARTICLE
RevistaEnvironmental Research Letters (JOURNAL)
Identificadores de la revistaISSN: 1748-9326 • E-ISSN: 1748-9326
EditorialIOP Publishing (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1088/1748-9326/3/3/035003
OpenAlexW2152057256
IdiomaEN
Citas recibidas1
Referencias citadas33

Supersaturations, microphysics and nitric acid partitioning in a very cold subvisible tropical cirrus cloud observed on 2 February 2006, during the field campaign CR-AVE, are studied by comparing a simulated set of possible cloud development scenarios with the in situ observations. The scenario that best matches the observations is a cirrus cloud forming by heterogeneous freezing of a small number of ice nuclei with subsequent unimpeded mass accommodation of water on ice. Variation of the freezing process, the accommodation coefficient or the amount of available water leads to simulated clouds that differ microphysically from the observed cloud in important respects. In particular, the simulations suggest that heterogeneous ice nucleation or another freezing mechanism producing only a low number of ice crystals could be an important process for cold cirrus cloud formation, possibly explaining the frequent observations of high supersaturations inside the cirrus cloud in this temperature regime

Atmospheric sciences · Cirrus · Cloud computing · Cloud physics · Ice cloud · Ice crystals · Ice nucleus · Liquid water content · Meteorology · Nucleation · Physics · Thermodynamics · Atmospheric aerosols and clouds · Atmospheric chemistry and aerosols · Atmospheric Ozone and Climate · Environmental Science · Geology