Refinements in the Treatment of Ice Particle Terminal Velocities, Highlighting Aggregates

Recent work on the terminal velocity of ice crystal aggregates suggests that their “Re–X” relationship may not be well predicted by current theory. This study examines possible reasons for this departure from theory, and develops a new Re–X relationship appropriate for ice crystal aggregates. The methodology of Khvorostyanov and Curry was applied to this new relationship to formulate power-law expressions for all ice particle types. Fall speed differences between the Khvorostyanov and Curry approach and the approach described here were as large as 50% for aggregates and 30% for single crystals. This was primarily due to the following: 1) surface roughness coefficients used in the former were appropriate for rigid spheres and liquid drops but not for ice crystals and 2) the relationship between Reynolds number Re and Best number X at high Re is better described for aggregates by adding a second term to the Re–X governing equation, as done in this work. The corrections and improvements described here may be critical to the calculation of snowfall rates, to the modeling of the aggregation process, and for interpreting Doppler radar measurements during snowfall events. Since most of the size distribution mass is generally associated with aggregates below cloud base, an accurate treatment of aggregate fall speeds is needed for determining snowfall rates.