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Microphysical consequences of the spatial distribution of ice nucleation in mixed‐phase stratiform clouds
Author(s) -
Yang Fan,
Ovchinnikov Mikhail,
Shaw Raymond A.
Publication year - 2014
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1002/2014gl060657
Subject(s) - ice nucleus , ice crystals , nucleation , sea ice growth processes , atmospheric sciences , clear ice , precipitation , liquid water content , geology , environmental science , materials science , sea ice thickness , arctic ice pack , sea ice , meteorology , cloud computing , physics , climatology , thermodynamics , antarctic sea ice , computer science , operating system
Mixed‐phase stratiform clouds can persist even with steady ice precipitation fluxes, and the origin and microphysical properties of the ice crystals are of interest. Vapor deposition growth and sedimentation of ice particles along with a uniform volume source of ice nucleation lead to a power law relation between ice water content w i and ice number concentration n i with exponent 2.5. The result is independent of assumptions about the vertical velocity structure of the cloud and is therefore more general than the related expression of Yang et al. (2013). The sensitivity of the w i − n i relationship to the spatial distribution of ice nucleation is confirmed by Lagrangian tracking and ice growth with cloud volume, cloud top, and cloud base sources of ice particles through a time‐dependent cloud field. Based on observed w i and n i from Indirect and Semi‐Direct Aerosol Campaign, a lower bound of 0.006 m −3 s −1 is obtained for the ice crystal formation rate.