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Nucleation of mesospheric cloud particles: Sensitivities and limits
Author(s) -
Wilms Henrike,
Rapp Markus,
Kirsch Annekatrin
Publication year - 2016
Publication title -
journal of geophysical research: space physics
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
eISSN - 2169-9402
pISSN - 2169-9380
DOI - 10.1002/2015ja021764
Subject(s) - mesopause , nucleation , supersaturation , atmospheric sciences , ice nucleus , atmosphere (unit) , mesosphere , aerosol , growth rate , gravity wave , ice crystals , environmental science , meteorology , physics , stratosphere , astrophysics , thermodynamics , gravitational wave , geometry , mathematics
Nucleation of mesospheric ice particles is thought to occur via heterogeneous nucleation on meteor smoke particles. However, several factors determining the nucleation rate are poorly known. To study the effect of uncertainties in the nucleation rate on cloud properties, we use the Community Aerosol and Radiation Model for Atmospheres and systematically vary the nucleation rate over ±10 orders of magnitude. In one set of simulations, the background state of the atmosphere is described by climatological conditions. In a second set, gravity wave‐perturbed profiles from the Kühlungsborn Mechanistic general Circulation Model (KMCM) are used with typical temperature (vertical wind) perturbations at the mesopause on the order of 9 K (0.45 m/s). The resulting noctilucent cloud (NLC) characteristics are compared to lidar and satellite measurements. Realistic NLCs compared to the lidar measurements can only be modeled if the nucleation rate is reduced by up to 3 orders of magnitude compared to standard assumptions. For the same cases, the simulated NLCs compare best to the satellite measurements if the nucleation rate is reduced by 2 orders of magnitude or more. Dynamical processes at the mesopause strongly influence the NLC development. In a gravity wave‐perturbed atmosphere, the ice particles have only limited time for nucleation and growth. The growth time is limited by the vertical wind, because the vertical wind determines the residence time of the ice particles in the supersaturated region. Since the vertical wind amplitudes reach 1.5 m/s in KMCM (compared to a mean upwelling of ∼4 cm/s in the climatology), the ice particles remain significantly smaller in a gravity wave‐perturbed atmosphere than in climatological background conditions.