scholarly journals Laboratory experiments on the effect of organic acids and metals on the charge transfer during ice crystal – graupel collision under the conditions similar to stratiform clouds

2010 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 245-280
Author(s):  
P. Jish Prakash ◽  
P. Pradeep Kumar

Abstract. Laboratory investigations have been carried out to find the sign and magnitude of charge transfer during the collision between ice crystals and graupel in the presence of supercooled water droplets inside the cylindrical steel chamber kept inside a walk-in cold room, which can reach a temperature of −30 °C. The experiments were performed with pure water (Milli-Q, 18.2 Megohms-cm) and with trace amounts of organic acids and metals at low Rime Accretion Rate (<0.40 g m−2 s-1) applicable to stratiform clouds in the temperature range −5 to −27 °C. The ice crystals and supercooled droplets collided with the graupel target at a constant impact velocity of 2.2 m/s. The presence of trace chemicals (organics or metals) saw significant increase in the magnitude of charge transferred per crystal collision to the graupel. These experiments therefore suggest that the presence of trace amounts of organics or metals in cloud water can significantly alter the electrical structure of stratiform clouds.

2013 ◽  
Vol 71 (1) ◽  
pp. 89-97 ◽  
Author(s):  
Gianni Santachiara ◽  
Franco Belosi ◽  
Franco Prodi

Abstract This paper addresses the problem of the large discrepancies between ice crystal concentrations in clouds and the number of ice nuclei in nearby clear air reported in published papers. Such discrepancies cannot always be explained, even by taking into account both primary and secondary ice formation processes. A laboratory experiment was performed in a cylindrical column placed in a cold room at atmospheric pressure and temperature in the −12° to −14°C range. Supercooled droplets were nucleated in the column, in the absence of aerosol ice nuclei, by injecting ice crystals generated outside in a small syringe. A rapid increase in the ice crystal concentration was observed in the absence of any known ice multiplication. The ratio between the mean number of ice crystals in the column, after complete droplet vaporization, and the number of ice crystals introduced in the column was about 10:1. The presence of small ice crystals (introduced at the top of the column) in the unstable system (supercooled droplets) appears to trigger the transformation in the whole supercooled liquid cloud. A possible explanation could be that the rapidly evaporating droplets cool sufficiently to determine a homogeneous nucleation.


2008 ◽  
Vol 65 (4) ◽  
pp. 1304-1322 ◽  
Author(s):  
Matthew D. Shupe ◽  
Pavlos Kollias ◽  
P. Ola G. Persson ◽  
Greg M. McFarquhar

Abstract The characteristics of Arctic mixed-phase stratiform clouds and their relation to vertical air motions are examined using ground-based observations during the Mixed-Phase Arctic Cloud Experiment (MPACE) in Barrow, Alaska, during fall 2004. The cloud macrophysical, microphysical, and dynamical properties are derived from a suite of active and passive remote sensors. Low-level, single-layer, mixed-phase stratiform clouds are typically topped by a 400–700-m-deep liquid water layer from which ice crystals precipitate. These clouds are strongly dominated (85% by mass) by liquid water. On average, an in-cloud updraft of 0.4 m s−1 sustains the clouds, although cloud-scale circulations lead to a variability of up to ±2 m s−1 from the average. Dominant scales-of-variability in both vertical air motions and cloud microphysical properties retrieved by this analysis occur at 0.5–10-km wavelengths. In updrafts, both cloud liquid and ice mass grow, although the net liquid mass growth is usually largest. Between updrafts, nearly all ice falls out and/or sublimates while the cloud liquid diminishes but does not completely evaporate. The persistence of liquid water throughout these cloud cycles suggests that ice-forming nuclei, and thus ice crystal, concentrations must be limited and that water vapor is plentiful. These details are brought together within the context of a conceptual model relating cloud-scale dynamics and microphysics.


2015 ◽  
Vol 72 (5) ◽  
pp. 2011-2032 ◽  
Author(s):  
Shichao Zhu ◽  
Xueliang Guo ◽  
Guangxian Lu ◽  
Lijun Guo

Abstract Ice crystal habits and growth processes in two cases of stratiform clouds with embedded convection are investigated using data observed simultaneously from three aircraft on 18 April 2009 and 1 May 2009 as part of the Beijing Cloud Experiment (BCE). The results show that the majority of ice crystal habits found in the two cases at temperatures between 0° and −16°C included platelike, needle column, capped column, dendrite, and irregular. A mixture of several ice crystal habits was identified in all of the clouds studied. However, the ice crystals recorded in the embedded convection regions contained more dendrites and possessed heavier riming degrees, and the ice crystals identified in the stratiform clouds contained more hexagonal plate crystals. Both riming and aggregation processes played central roles in the broadening of particle size distributions (PSDs), and these processes were more active in embedded convection regions than in stratiform regions. However, riming was more prevalent in the 18 April case than aggregation, though aggregates were evident. In contrast, the 1 May case had a more dominant aggregation processes, but also riming. With the decrease in height, PSDs broadened in both embedded convection regions and stratiform regions, but the broadening rates between 4.8 km (T ≈ −11.6°C) and 4.2 km (T ≈ −8°C) were larger than those between 4.2 km (T ≈ −8°C) and 3.6 km (T ≈ −5°C). In addition, the broadening rates of PSDs in the embedded convection regions were larger than those in the stratiform clouds, as the aggregation and riming processes of ice particles in embedded convection regions were active. High supercooled water content is critical to enhancing riming and aggregation processes in embedded convection regions.


Author(s):  
I. Taylor ◽  
P. Ingram ◽  
J.R. Sommer

In studying quick-frozen single intact skeletal muscle fibers for structural and microchemical alterations that occur milliseconds, and fractions thereof, after electrical stimulation, we have developed a method to compare, directly, ice crystal formation in freeze-substituted thin sections adjacent to all, and beneath the last, freeze-dried cryosections. We have observed images in the cryosections that to our knowledge have not been published heretofore (Figs.1-4). The main features are that isolated, sometimes large regions of the sections appear hazy and have much less contrast than adjacent regions. Sometimes within the hazy regions there are smaller areas that appear crinkled and have much more contrast. We have also observed that while the hazy areas remain still, the regions of higher contrast visibly contract in the beam, often causing tears in the sections that are clearly not caused by ice crystals (Fig.3, arrows).


1977 ◽  
Vol 4 (2) ◽  
pp. 153-160 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. O'D. Hanley ◽  
B. Michel

Ice formation under controlled conditions was studied in a cold room using a cylindrical steel tank 120 cm in diameter and 76 cm deep. Paddles turned by a variable speed motor moved the water about the axis of the tank. Twenty-one thermistors were used to record temperatures above and below the surface of the water. Ice was allowed to form with the cold room temperature held at −2 °C, −5 °C, −10 °C, and −20 °C and with water speeds (measured 4 cm from the tank wall) from 0 to 73 cm/s.At zero water speed ice formed first as needles randomly oriented over the surface. With flowing water, border ice width increased linearly with time, but independently of water speed. The rate of increase of the border width w fits the equation dw/dt = (4/9)|Ta|0.68 where Ta is the Celsius air temperature.Frazil was never observed at water speeds less than 24 cm/s, but was always formed at this or greater speeds, regardless of cold room temperature. The volume of slush accumulated was greater at greater water speeds and at colder air temperatures. Observed slush volumes are compared with semiempirical values of the ice mass obtained from theoretical equations. The data suggest that growth of ice crystals began when the water was supercooled by approximately 0.02 °C.


CrystEngComm ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 19 (16) ◽  
pp. 2163-2167 ◽  
Author(s):  
Charles H. Z. Kong ◽  
Ivanhoe K. H. Leung ◽  
Vijayalekshmi Sarojini

Synthetic antifreeze peptides based on the hyperactive antifreeze protein modify the shape of ice crystals and show enhanced antifreeze activity with the addition of a small molecule.


Author(s):  
Zepei Wu ◽  
Shuo Liu ◽  
Delong Zhao ◽  
Ling Yang ◽  
Zixin Xu ◽  
...  

AbstractCloud particles have different shapes in the atmosphere. Research on cloud particle shapes plays an important role in analyzing the growth of ice crystals and the cloud microphysics. To achieve an accurate and efficient classification algorithm on ice crystal images, this study uses image-based morphological processing and principal component analysis, to extract features of images and apply intelligent classification algorithms for the Cloud Particle Imager (CPI). Currently, there are mainly two types of ice-crystal classification methods: one is the mode parameterization scheme, and the other is the artificial intelligence model. Combined with data feature extraction, the dataset was tested on ten types of classifiers, and the highest average accuracy was 99.07%. The fastest processing speed of the real-time data processing test was 2,000 images/s. In actual application, the algorithm should consider the processing speed, because the images are in the order of millions. Therefore, a support vector machine (SVM) classifier was used in this study. The SVM-based optimization algorithm can classify ice crystals into nine classes with an average accuracy of 95%, blurred frame accuracy of 100%, with a processing speed of 2,000 images/s. This method has a relatively high accuracy and faster classification processing speed than the classic neural network model. The new method could be also applied in physical parameter analysis of cloud microphysics.


2017 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guillaume Mioche ◽  
Olivier Jourdan ◽  
Julien Delanoë ◽  
Christophe Gourbeyre ◽  
Guy Febvre ◽  
...  

Abstract. This study aims to characterize the microphysical and optical properties of ice crystals and supercooled liquid droplets within low-level Arctic mixed-phase clouds (MPC). We compiled and analyzed cloud in situ measurements from 4 airborne campaigns (18 flights, 71 vertical profiles in MPC) over the Greenland Sea and the Svalbard region. Cloud phase discrimination and representative vertical profiles of number, size, mass and shapes of ice crystals and liquid droplets are assessed. The results show that the liquid phase dominates the upper part of the MPC with high concentration of small droplets (120 cm−3, 15&amp;tinsp;μm), and averaged LWC around 0.2 g m−3. The ice phase is found everywhere within the MPC layers, but dominates the properties in the lower part of the cloud and below where ice crystals precipitate down to the surface. The analysis of the ice crystal morphology highlights that irregulars and rimed are the main particle habit followed by stellars and plates. We hypothesize that riming and condensational growth processes (including the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisein mechanism) are the main growth mechanisms involved in MPC. The differences observed in the vertical profiles of MPC properties from one campaign to another highlight that large values of LWC and high concentration of smaller droplets are possibly linked to polluted situations which lead to very low values of ice crystal size and IWC. On the contrary, clean situations with low temperatures exhibit larger values of ice crystal size and IWC. Several parameterizations relevant for remote sensing or modeling are also determined, such as IWC (and LWC) – extinction relationship, ice and liquid integrated water paths, ice concentration and liquid water fraction according to temperature. Finally, 4 flights collocated with active remote sensing observations from CALIPSO and CloudSat satellites are specifically analyzed to evaluate the cloud detection and cloud thermodynamical phase DARDAR retrievals. This comparison is valuable to assess the sub-pixel variability of the satellite measurements as well as their shortcomings/performance near the ground.


2020 ◽  
Vol 13 (3) ◽  
pp. 1273-1285 ◽  
Author(s):  
Thomas Kuhn ◽  
Sandra Vázquez-Martín

Abstract. Accurate predictions of snowfall require good knowledge of the microphysical properties of the snow ice crystals and particles. Shape is an important parameter as it strongly influences the scattering properties of the ice particles, and thus their response to remote sensing techniques such as radar measurements. The fall speed of ice particles is another important parameter for both numerical forecast models as well as representation of ice clouds and snow in climate models, as it is responsible for the rate of removal of ice from these models. We describe a new ground-based in situ instrument, the Dual Ice Crystal Imager (D-ICI), to determine snow ice crystal properties and fall speed simultaneously. The instrument takes two high-resolution pictures of the same falling ice particle from two different viewing directions. Both cameras use a microscope-like setup resulting in an image pixel resolution of approximately 4 µm pixel−1. One viewing direction is horizontal and is used to determine fall speed by means of a double exposure. For this purpose, two bright flashes of a light-emitting diode behind the camera illuminate the falling ice particle and create this double exposure, and the vertical displacement of the particle provides its fall speed. The other viewing direction is close-to-vertical and is used to provide size and shape information from single-exposure images. This viewing geometry is chosen instead of a horizontal one because shape and size of ice particles as viewed in the vertical direction are more relevant than these properties viewed horizontally, as the vertical fall speed is more strongly influenced by the vertically viewed properties. In addition, a comparison with remote sensing instruments that mostly have a vertical or close-to-vertical viewing geometry is favoured when the particle properties are measured in the same direction. The instrument has been tested in Kiruna, northern Sweden (67.8∘ N, 20.4∘ E). Measurements are demonstrated with images from different snow events, and the determined snow ice crystal properties are presented.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Sergey Khaykin ◽  
Martina Krämer ◽  
Elizabeth Moyer ◽  
Silvia Bucci ◽  
Armin Afchine ◽  
...  

&lt;p&gt;Deployment of the high-altitude M55-Geophysica aircraft in Kathmandu during Summer 2017 within StratoClim campaign has yielded a wealth of unique high-resolution measurements in the Asian Monsoon Anticyclone (AMA). In a particular flight (F8, 10 August 2017) the aircraft flew at the cold-point tropopause level through active overshoots and their outflows minutes to hours old. The measurements reveal up to 2500 ppmv of ice water above 17 km in large aggregated ice crystals up to 700 &amp;#181;m in diameter. Smaller crystals were observed as high as 18.8 km (410 K). Tracer and thermodynamical measurements show manifestations of vigorous vertical motions and provide evidence for ongoing mixing of tropospheric and stratospheric air around the tropopause. We use an ensemble of airborne and satellite measurements inside and downwind of convective overshoots together with trajectory modeling to characterize the impact of overshooting convection on the thermodynamical structure and chemical composition of the Asian tropopause layer. The effect of cross-tropopause convective transport on the Asian lower stratospheric water vapour is discussed.&lt;/p&gt;


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