Multiple Environmental Influences on the Lightning of Cold-based Continental Convection. Part II: Sensitivity Tests for its Charge Structure and Land-Ocean Contrast

In Part I, an electrification scheme was described and a simulation of an observed cold-based storm from the US High Plains was validated with electrical observations. Most charge in the storm was separated by rebounding collisions of secondary ice originating from prior graupel-snow collisions.In this Part II, sensitivity tests are performed with the control simulation (Part I) and influences from environmental factors (aerosols, temperature, moisture, shear) on lightning are elucidated. Environmental factors (e.g. Convective Available Potential Energy [CAPE]) controlling updraft speed are salient. When ascent is reduced by 30% and 70%, flashes become 70% fewer and disappear respectively; faster ascent promotes positive cloud-to-ground (+CGs) flashes. Since cloud-base is too cold (1 °C) for coalescence, cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) aerosol concentrations do not influence the lightning appreciably. The electrical response to varying concentrations of active ice nuclei (IN) is limited by most ice particles being secondary and less sensitive, a natural ‘buffer’.Imposing a maritime sounding suggests that the land-sea contrast in lightning for such storms is due to the vertical structure of environmental temperature and humidity. Weak CAPE, and both entrainment and condensate weight from a low cloud-base, suppress ascent and charging. Maritime thermodynamic conditions reduce simulated flash rates by two orders of magnitude. Reducing aerosol loadings from continental to maritime reinforces this suppression.A conceptual model is provided for how any simulated storm is normal (inverted/anomalous) because graupel/hail is mostly positively (negatively) charged, with environmental factors controlling the charging. Finally, impacts from microphysical processes on lightning are analysed.

The dual-field-of-view polarization lidar technique: a new concept in monitoring aerosol effects in liquid-water clouds – theoretical framework

In a series of two articles, a novel, robust, and practicable lidar approach is presented that allows us to derive microphysical properties of liquid-water clouds (cloud extinction coefficient, droplet effective radius, liquid-water content, cloud droplet number concentration) at a height of 50–100 m above the cloud base. The temporal resolution of the observations is on the order of 30–120 s. Together with the aerosol information (aerosol extinction coefficients, cloud condensation nucleus concentration) below the cloud layer, obtained with the same lidar, in-depth aerosol–cloud interaction studies can be performed. The theoretical background and the methodology of the new cloud lidar technique is outlined in this article (Part 1), and measurement applications are presented in a companion publication (Part 2) (Jimenez et al., 2020a). The novel cloud retrieval technique is based on lidar observations of the volume linear depolarization ratio at two different receiver fields of view (FOVs). Extensive simulations of lidar returns in the multiple scattering regime were conducted to investigate the capabilities of a dual-FOV polarization lidar to measure cloud properties and to quantify the information content in the measured depolarization features regarding the basic retrieval parameters (cloud extinction coefficient, droplet effective radius). Key simulation results and the overall data analysis scheme developed to obtain the aerosol and cloud products are presented.

Tropospheric and stratospheric wildfire smoke profiling with lidar: Mass, surface area, CCN and INP retrieval

We present retrievals of tropospheric and stratospheric height profiles of particle mass, volume, and surface area concentrations in the case of wildfire smoke layers as well as estimates of smoke-related cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) and ice-nucleating particle (INP) concentrations from single-wavelength backscatter lidar measurements at ground and in space. A central role in the data analysis play conversion factors to convert the measured optical into microphysical properties. The set of needed conversion parameters for wildfire smoke are derived from AERONET observations of major smoke events caused by record-breaking wildfires in western Canada in August 2017 and southeastern Australia in January–February 2020. The new smoke analysis scheme is applied to stratospheric CALIPSO observations of fresh smoke plumes over northern Canada in 2017 and New Zealand in January 2020 and to ground-based lidar observation in southern Chile in aged Australian smoke layers in January 2020. These case studies show the potential of spaceborne and ground-based lidars to document large-scale and long-lasting wildfire smoke events in large detail and thus to provide valuable information for climate-, cloud-, and air chemistry modeling efforts performed to investigate the role of wildfire smoke in the atmospheric system.

Application of an O-ring pinch device as a constant-pressure inlet (CPI) for airborne sampling

We present a novel and compact design of a constant-pressure inlet (CPI) developed for use in airborne aerosol mass spectrometry. In particular, the inlet system is optimized for aerodynamic lenses commonly used in aerosol mass spectrometers, in which efficient focusing of aerosol particles into a vacuum chamber requires a precisely controlled lens pressure, typically of a few hectopascals. The CPI device can also be used in condensation particle counters (CPCs), cloud condensation nucleus counters (CCNCs), and gas-phase sampling instruments across a wide range of altitudes and inlet pressures. The constant pressure is achieved by changing the inner diameter of a properly scaled O-ring that acts as a critical orifice. The CPI control keeps air pressure and thereby mass flow rate (≈0.1 L min−1) upstream of an aerodynamic lens constant, deviating at most by only ±2 % from a preset value. In our setup, a pressure sensor downstream of the O-ring maintains control of the pinch mechanism via a feedback loop and setpoint conditions are reached within seconds. The device was implemented in a few instruments, which were successfully operated on different research aircraft covering a wide range of ambient pressures, from sea level up to about 55 hPa. Details of operation and the quality of aerosol particle transmission were evaluated by laboratory experiments and in-flight data with a single-particle mass spectrometer.

The dual-field-of-view polarization lidar technique: A new concept in monitoring aerosol effects in liquid-water clouds – Theoretical framework

In a series of two articles, a novel, robust, and practicable lidar approach is presented that allows us to derive microphysical properties of liquid-water clouds (cloud extinction coefficient, droplet effective radius, liquid-water content, cloud droplet number concentration) at a height of 50–100 m above cloud base. The temporal resolution of the observations is on the order of 30–120 sec. Together with the aerosol information (aerosol extinction coefficients, cloud condensation nucleus concentration) below the cloud layer, obtained with the same lidar, in-depth aerosol-cloud interaction studies can be performed. The theoretical background and the methodology of the new cloud lidar technique is outlined in this article (part 1), measurement applications are presented in an companion publication (part 2). The novel cloud retrieval technique is based on lidar observations of the volume linear depolarization ratio at two different receiver field-of-views (FOVs). Extensive simulations of lidar returns in the multiple scattering regime were conducted to investigate the capabilities of a dual-FOV polarization lidar to measure cloud properties and to quantify the information content in the measured depolarization features regarding the basic retrieval parameters (cloud extinction coefficient, droplet effective radius). Key simulation results and the developed overall data analysis scheme to obtain the aerosol and cloud products are presented.

Polarimetric Backscatter Sonde Observations of Southern Ocean Clouds and Aerosols

Balloon-borne polarimetric backscatter sonde (polarsonde) observations of aerosol and cloud during the approach of a cold front at Macquarie Island (54.499 S 158.937 E) are described. The polarsonde captures vertical profiles of cloud occurrence and phase. The cloud base and cloud top heights from the backscatter sonde compare favourably with observations made by a co-located cloud radar and ceilometer. An estimate of the total scatter probability from a liquid cloud layer at 1000 m height is used with a Monte Carlo model of the instrument to obtain cloud particle concentration, and this is compared to a measurement of cloud condensation nucleus concentration made at sea level. Backscatter from aerosol, as well as cloud, is significant. A high aerosol loading in part of the pre-frontal airmass is observed at altitudes up to 6 km. Below the melting level, the high cross-polarised return, relative to the co-polarised, indicates a substantial concentration of solid, non-spherical aerosol particles, which due to the high humidity cannot be sea salt or sulphate. A back trajectory analysis indicates that the observed aerosol includes continental dust.

Sensitivity of Precipitation and Structure of Typhoon Hato to Bulk and Explicit Spectral Bin Microphysics Schemes

This study simulated the evolution of Typhoon Hato (2017) with the Weather Research and Forecasting model using three bulk schemes and one bin scheme. It was found that the track of the typhoon was insensitive to the microphysics scheme, whereas the degree of correspondence between the simulated precipitation and the cloud structure of the typhoon was closest to the observations when using the bin scheme. The different microphysical structure of the bin and three bulk schemes was reflected mainly in the cloud water and snow content. The three bulk schemes were found to produce more cloud water because the application of saturation adjustment condensed all the water vapor at the end of each time step. The production of more snow by the bin scheme could be attributed to several causes: (1) the calculations of cloud condensation nucleus size distributions and supersaturation at every grid point that cause small droplets to form at high levels, (2) different fall velocities of different sizes of particles that mean small particles remain at a significant height, (3) sufficient water vapor at high levels, and (4) smaller amounts of cloud water that reduce the rates of riming and conversion of snow to graupel. The distribution of hydrometeors affects the thermal and dynamical structure of the typhoon. The saturation adjustment hypothesis in the bulk schemes overestimates the condensate mass. Thus, the additional latent heat makes the typhoon structure warmer, which increases vertical velocity and enhances convective precipitation in the eyewall region.

Dust mass, cloud condensation nuclei, and ice-nucleating particle profiling with polarization lidar: updated POLIPHON conversion factors from global AERONET analysis

The POLIPHON (Polarization Lidar Photometer Networking) method permits the retrieval of particle number, surface area, and volume concentration for dust and non-dust aerosol components. The obtained microphysical properties are used to estimate height profiles of particle mass, cloud condensation nucleus (CCN) and ice-nucleating particle (INP) concentrations. The conversion of aerosol-type-dependent particle extinction coefficients, derived from polarization lidar observations, into the aerosol microphysical properties (number, surface area, volume) forms the central part of the POLIPHON computations. The conversion parameters are determined from Aerosol Robotic Network (AERONET) aerosol climatologies of optical and microphysical properties. In this article, we focus on the dust-related POLIPHON retrieval products and present an extended set of dust conversion factors considering all relevant deserts around the globe. We apply the new conversion factor set to a dust measurement with polarization lidar in Dushanbe, Tajikistan, in central Asia. Strong aerosol layering was observed with mineral dust advected from Kazakhstan (0–2 km height), Iran (2–5 km), the Arabian peninsula (5–7 km), and the Sahara (8–10 km). POLIPHON results obtained with different sets of conversion parameters were contrasted in this central Asian case study and permitted an estimation of the conversion uncertainties.