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The production of high ice‐crystal concentrations in stratiform clouds
Author(s) -
Mason B. J.
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
quarterly journal of the royal meteorological society
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.744
H-Index - 143
eISSN - 1477-870X
pISSN - 0035-9009
DOI - 10.1002/qj.49712454516
Subject(s) - ice crystals , atmospheric sciences , saturation (graph theory) , clear ice , convection , ice nucleus , environmental science , geology , materials science , meteorology , chemistry , climatology , arctic ice pack , sea ice , physics , antarctic sea ice , mathematics , organic chemistry , combinatorics , nucleation
The appearance of ice crystals in high concentrations, of ∼ 500 1 −1 in the −3 to −8°C zone of stratiform clouds, recently reported by Bower et al. , is explained by the shedding of splinters by riming ice crystals at rates observed in the laboratory earlier by Hallett and Mossop. The appearance of a second maximum at −15°C, with small crystals of diameter less than 125 μm in concentrations of ∼ 1000 1 −1 , is attributed to the transport of small ice splinters produced in the Hallet‐Mossop zone that grow at small ice supersaturations in weak updraughts between the −8°C and −12°C levels, and thereafter at water saturation in convective cells containing liquid water and updraughts of 1 m s −1 between the −12°C and −15°C levels.