Relative Humidity in Liquid, Mixed-Phase, and Ice Clouds

2006 ◽  
Vol 63 (11) ◽  
pp. 2865-2880 ◽  
Author(s):  
Alexei Korolev ◽  
George A. Isaac
Keyword(s):  
Relative Humidity ◽  
Research Council ◽  
Large Fraction ◽  
National Research Council ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Ice Clouds ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Frontal Systems ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract The results of in situ observations of the relative humidity in liquid, mixed, and ice clouds typically stratiform in nature and associated with mesoscale frontal systems at temperatures −45°C < Ta < −5°C are presented. The data were collected with the help of instrumentation deployed on the National Research Council (NRC) Convair-580. The length of sampled in-cloud space is approximately 23 × 103 km. The liquid sensor was calibrated in liquid clouds with the assumption that the air in liquid clouds is saturated with respect to water. It was found that the relative humidity in mixed-phase clouds is close to saturation over water in the temperature range from −5° to −35°C for an averaging scale of 100 m. In ice clouds the relative humidity over ice is not necessarily equal to 100%, and it may be either lower or higher than saturation over ice, but it is always lower than saturation over water. On average the relative humidity in ice clouds increases with a decrease of temperature. At −40°C the relative humidity over ice is midway between saturation over ice and liquid. A parameterization for the relative humidity in ice clouds is suggested. A large fraction of ice clouds was found to be undersaturated with respect to ice. The fraction of ice clouds undersaturated with respect to ice increases toward warmer temperatures.

scholarly journals A Modeling Case Study of Mixed-Phase Clouds over the Southern Ocean and Tasmania

2010 ◽  
Vol 138 (3) ◽  
pp. 839-862 ◽  
Author(s):  
Anthony E. Morrison ◽  
Steven T. Siems ◽  
Michael J. Manton ◽  
Alex Nazarov
Keyword(s):  
Southern Ocean ◽  
Supercooled Liquid ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Weather Research And Forecasting ◽  
Marine Stratocumulus ◽  
Cloud Structure ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Cloud Tops ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract The cloud structure associated with two frontal passages over the Southern Ocean and Tasmania is investigated. The first event, during August 2006, is characterized by large quantities of supercooled liquid water and little ice. The second case, during October 2007, is more mixed phase. The Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRFV2.2.1) is evaluated using remote sensed and in situ observations within the post frontal air mass. The Thompson microphysics module is used to describe in-cloud processes, where ice is initiated using the Cooper parameterization at temperatures lower than −8°C or at ice supersaturations greater than 8%. The evaluated cases are then used to numerically investigate the prevalence of supercooled and mixed-phase clouds over Tasmania and the ocean to the west. The simulations produce marine stratocumulus-like clouds with maximum heights of between 3 and 5 km. These are capped by weak temperature and strong moisture inversions. When the inversion is at temperatures warmer than −10°C, WRF produces widespread supercooled cloud fields with little glaciation. This is consistent with the limited in situ observations. When the inversion is at higher altitudes, allowing cooler cloud tops, glaciated (and to a lesser extent mixed phase) clouds are more common. The simulations are further explored to evaluate any orographic signature within the cloud structure over Tasmania. No consistent signature is found between the two cases.

scholarly journals Cloud phase identification of low-level Arctic clouds from airborne spectral radiation measurements: test of three approaches

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (4) ◽  
pp. 15901-15939 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ehrlich ◽  
E. Bierwirth ◽  
M. Wendisch ◽  
J.-F. Gayet ◽  
G. Mioche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Ice Crystals ◽  
The Arctic ◽  
Pure Liquid ◽  
Phase Identification ◽  
Ice Clouds ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract. Boundary layer clouds were investigated with a complementary set of remote sensing and in situ instruments during the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR) campaign in March and April 2007. The clouds that formed in a cold air outbreak over the open Greenland sea showed a variety in their thermodynamic state. Beside the predominant mixed-phase clouds pure liquid and ice clouds were observed. Utilizing the measurements of solar radiation reflected by the clouds three methods to retrieve the thermodynamic phase of the cloud were defined and compared. Two ice indices IS and IP were obtained by analyzing the spectral pattern of the cloud top reflectance in the near infrared (1500–1800 nm wavelength) characterized by ice and water absorption. A third ice index IA is based on the different side scattering of spherical liquid water particles and nonspherical ice crystals which was recorded in simultaneous measurements of cloud albedo and reflectance. Radiative transfer simulations showed that IS, IP and IA range between 5 to 80, 0 to 20 and 1 to 1.25, respectively, with lowest values indicating pure liquid water clouds and highest values pure ice clouds. IS and IP were found to be strongly sensitive to the effective diameter of the ice crystals present in the cloud. Therefore the identification of mixed-phase clouds requires a priori knowledge of the ice crystal dimension. IA has the disadvantage that this index is mainly dominated by the uppermost cloud layer (τ<1.5). Typical boundary layer mixed-phase clouds with a liquid cloud top layer will be identified as pure liquid water clouds. All three methods were applied to measurements above a cloud field observed during ASTAR 2007. The comparison with independent in situ microphysical measurements showed a good agreement in identifying the dominant mixed-phase clouds and a pure ice cloud at the edge of the cloud field.

scholarly journals Cloud phase identification of Arctic boundary-layer clouds from airborne spectral reflection measurements: test of three approaches

2008 ◽  
Vol 8 (24) ◽  
pp. 7493-7505 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. Ehrlich ◽  
E. Bierwirth ◽  
M. Wendisch ◽  
J.-F. Gayet ◽  
G. Mioche ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Boundary Layer ◽  
Liquid Water ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Pure Liquid ◽  
Spectral Slope ◽  
Arctic Boundary Layer ◽  
Ice Clouds ◽  
Boundary Layer Clouds ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract. Arctic boundary-layer clouds were investigated with remote sensing and in situ instruments during the Arctic Study of Tropospheric Aerosol, Clouds and Radiation (ASTAR) campaign in March and April 2007. The clouds formed in a cold air outbreak over the open Greenland Sea. Beside the predominant mixed-phase clouds pure liquid water and ice clouds were observed. Utilizing measurements of solar radiation reflected by the clouds three methods to retrieve the thermodynamic phase of the cloud are introduced and compared. Two ice indices IS and IP were obtained by analyzing the spectral pattern of the cloud top reflectance in the near infrared (1500–1800 nm wavelength) spectral range which is characterized by ice and water absorption. While IS analyzes the spectral slope of the reflectance in this wavelength range, IS utilizes a principle component analysis (PCA) of the spectral reflectance. A third ice index IA is based on the different side scattering of spherical liquid water particles and nonspherical ice crystals which was recorded in simultaneous measurements of spectral cloud albedo and reflectance. Radiative transfer simulations show that IS, IP and IA range between 5 to 80, 0 to 8 and 1 to 1.25 respectively with lowest values indicating pure liquid water clouds and highest values pure ice clouds. The spectral slope ice index IS and the PCA ice index IP are found to be strongly sensitive to the effective diameter of the ice crystals present in the cloud. Therefore, the identification of mixed-phase clouds requires a priori knowledge of the ice crystal dimension. The reflectance-albedo ice index IA is mainly dominated by the uppermost cloud layer (τ<1.5). Therefore, typical boundary-layer mixed-phase clouds with a liquid cloud top layer will be identified as pure liquid water clouds. All three methods were applied to measurements above a cloud field observed during ASTAR 2007. The comparison with independent in situ microphysical measurements shows the ability of the three approaches to identify the ice phase in Arctic boundary-layer clouds.

About the Use of Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD) in the Framework of Physical Limnological Studies on a Great Lake

2011 ◽  
pp. 257-277 ◽  
Author(s):  
Leonardo Castellano ◽  
Walter Ambrosetti ◽  
Nicoletta Sala
Keyword(s):  
Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics ◽  
Research Council ◽  
National Research Council ◽  
Computer Code ◽  
Current State ◽  
Computational Fluid Dynamics Cfd ◽  
In Situ Observations ◽  
Consiglio Nazionale Delle Ricerche

The aim of this chapter is to discuss how far computational fluid dynamics (CFD) is currently able to simulate the limnological physics of a complex natural body of water. The experience reported by the authors is in progress at the CNR- ISE (Consiglio Nazionale delle Ricerche, Istituto per lo Studio degli Ecosistemi; National Research Council, Institute of Ecosystem Study) of Pallanza, Italy. The main features of the current state of the art in this field of application of mathematical modeling techniques are summarized and the characteristics of the computer code now in use for our studies on Lake Maggiore are described in detail. Examples of the kind of information that can be extracted from the outputs are given to show how knowledge collected by traditional analysis of the experimental data and in situ observations can be improved with this kind of support. Forecasts for future trends are also suggested.

scholarly journals Ice crystal number concentration estimates from lidar-radar satellite retrievals. Part 2: Controls on the ice crystal number concentration

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Edward Gryspeerdt ◽  
Odran Sourdeval ◽  
Johannes Quaas ◽  
Julien Delanoë ◽  
Philipp Kühne
Keyword(s):  
Global Scale ◽  
Number Concentration ◽  
Ice Crystal ◽  
Ice Clouds ◽  
Ice Cloud ◽  
Cloud Properties ◽  
Radar Satellite ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract. The ice crystal number concentration (Ni) is a key property of ice clouds, both radiatively and microphysically. However, due to sparse in-situ measurements of ice cloud properties, the controls on the Ni have remained difficult to determine. As more advanced treatments of ice clouds are included in global models, it is becoming increasingly necessary to develop strong observational constraints on the processes involved. This work uses the DARDAR-LIM Ni retrieval described in part one to investigate the controls of the Ni at a global scale. The retrieved clouds are separated by type. The effects of temperature, proxies for in-cloud updraught and aerosol concentrations are investigated. Variations in the cloud top Ni (Ni(top)) consistent with both homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation are observed and along with a possible role of aerosol both increasing and decreasing the Ni(top) depending on the prevailing meteorological situation. Away from the cloud top, the Ni displays a different sensitivity to these controlling factors, providing a possible explanation to the low Ni sensitivity to temperature and INP observed in previous in-situ studies. This satellite dataset provides a new way of investigating the response of cloud properties to meteorological and aerosol controls. The results presented in this work increase our confidence in the retrieved Ni and will form the basis for further study into the processes influencing ice and mixed phase clouds.

scholarly journals Liquid fraction in stratiform mixed-phase clouds from in situ observations

2004 ◽  
Vol 130 (603) ◽  
pp. 2919-2931 ◽  
Author(s):  
Faisal S. Boudala ◽  
George A. Isaac ◽  
Stewart G. Cober ◽  
Qiang Fu
Keyword(s):  
Liquid Fraction ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

scholarly journals HOLIMO II: a digital holographic instrument for ground-based in-situ observations of microphysical properties of mixed-phase clouds

2013 ◽  
Vol 6 (3) ◽  
pp. 4183-4221 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Henneberger ◽  
J. P. Fugal ◽  
O. Stetzer ◽  
U. Lohmann
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Resolution ◽  
High Spatial Resolution ◽  
Mixed Phase ◽  
Size Spectrum ◽  
Research Station ◽  
Resolution Limit ◽  
Microphysical Properties ◽  
Cloud Particles ◽  
Mixed Phase Clouds

Abstract. Measurements of the microphysical properties of mixed-phase clouds with high spatial resolution are important to understand the processes inside these clouds. This work describes the design and characterization of the newly developed ground-based field instrument HOLIMO II (HOLographic Imager for Microscopic Objects II). HOLIMO II uses digital in-line holography to in-situ image cloud particles in a well defined sample volume. By an automated algorithm, two-dimensional images of single cloud particles between 6 and 250 μm in diameter are obtained and the size spectrum, the concentration and water content of clouds are calculated. By testing the sizing algorithm with monosized beads a systematic overestimation near the resolution limit was found, which has been used to correct the measurements. Field measurements from the high altitude research station Jungfraujoch, Switzerland, are presented. The measured number size distributions are in good agreement with parallel measurements by a fog monitor (FM-100, DMT, Boulder USA). The field data shows that HOLIMO II is capable of measuring the number size distribution with a high spatial resolution and determines ice crystal shape, thus providing a method of quantifying variations in microphysical properties. A case study over a period of 8 h has been analyzed, exploring the transition from a liquid to a mixed-phase cloud, which is the longest observation of a cloud with a holographic device. During the measurement period, the cloud does not completely glaciate, contradicting earlier assumptions of the dominance of the Wegener–Bergeron–Findeisen (WBF) process.

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