Research article
01 Dec 2017
Research article
| 01 Dec 2017
Multifractal evaluation of simulated precipitation intensities from the COSMO NWP model
Daniel Wolfensberger et al.
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Pierre-Antoine Versini, Filip Stanic, Auguste Gires, Daniel Schertzer, and Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
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Auguste Gires, Philippe Bruley, Anne Ruas, Daniel Schertzer, and Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
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Auguste Gires, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia, and Daniel Schertzer
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Mathieu Schaer, Christophe Praz, and Alexis Berne
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Wind and precipitation often occur together, making the distinction between particles coming from the atmosphere and those blown by the wind difficult. This is however a crucial task to accurately close the surface mass balance. We propose an algorithm based on Gaussian mixture models to separate blowing snow and precipitation in images collected by a Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC). The algorithm is trained and (positively) evaluated using data collected in the Swiss Alps and in Antarctica.
Rosa Vicari, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia, Bruno Tisserand, and Daniel Schertzer
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Yangzi Qiu, Abdellah Ichiba, Igor Da Silva Rocha Paz, Feihu Chen, Pierre-Antoine Versini, Daniel Schertzer, and Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2019-347, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-2019-347, 2019
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Florentin Lemonnier, Jean-Baptiste Madeleine, Chantal Claud, Christophe Genthon, Claudio Durán-Alarcón, Cyril Palerme, Alexis Berne, Niels Souverijns, Nicole van Lipzig, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Tristan L'Ecuyer, and Norman Wood
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Evaluation of the vertical precipitation rate profiles of CloudSat radar by comparison with two surface-based micro-rain radars (MRR) located at two antarctic stations gives a near-perfect correlation between both datasets, even though climatic and geographic conditions are different for the stations. A better understanding and reassessment of CloudSat uncertainties ranging from −13 % up to +22 % confirms the robustness of the CloudSat retrievals of snowfall over Antarctica.
Claudio Durán-Alarcón, Brice Boudevillain, Christophe Genthon, Jacopo Grazioli, Niels Souverijns, Nicole P. M. van Lipzig, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, and Alexis Berne
The Cryosphere, 13, 247–264, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-247-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-13-247-2019, 2019
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Precipitation is the main input in the surface mass balance of the Antarctic ice sheet, but it is still poorly understood due to a lack of observations in this region. We analyzed the vertical structure of the precipitation using multiyear observation of vertically pointing micro rain radars (MRRs) at two stations located in East Antarctica. The use of MRRs showed the potential to study the effect of climatology and hydrometeor microphysics on the vertical structure of Antarctic precipitation.
Rosa Vicari, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia, and Daniel Schertzer
Geosci. Commun., 2, 25–38, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-25-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/gc-2-25-2019, 2019
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The resilience of our cities to climate risks relies on the capacity of urban communities to communicate. This paper presents a study aimed at understanding how to assess the impact of public outreach campaigns on urban resilience. The paper reviews resilience assessment methods, highlights those frameworks that consider communication impacts, and presents a range of experiments aimed at testing novel
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Niels Souverijns, Alexandra Gossart, Stef Lhermitte, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Jacopo Grazioli, Alexis Berne, Claudio Duran-Alarcon, Brice Boudevillain, Christophe Genthon, Claudio Scarchilli, and Nicole P. M. van Lipzig
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Snowfall observations over Antarctica are scarce and currently limited to information from the CloudSat satellite. Here, a first evaluation of the CloudSat snowfall record is performed using observations of ground-based precipitation radars. Results indicate an accurate representation of the snowfall climatology over Antarctica, despite the low overpass frequency of the satellite, outperforming state-of-the-art model estimates. Individual snowfall events are however not well represented.
Franziska Gerber, Nikola Besic, Varun Sharma, Rebecca Mott, Megan Daniels, Marco Gabella, Alexis Berne, Urs Germann, and Michael Lehning
The Cryosphere, 12, 3137–3160, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3137-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-12-3137-2018, 2018
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Floor van den Heuvel, Marco Gabella, Urs Germann, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 5181–5198, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5181-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-5181-2018, 2018
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The paper aims at characterising and quantifying the spatio-temporal variability of the melting layer (ML; transition zone from solid to liquid precipitation). A method based on the Fourier transform is found to accurately describe different ML signatures. Hence, it is applied to characterise the ML variability in a relatively flat area and in an inner Alpine valley in Switzerland, where the variability at smaller spatial scales is found to be relatively more important.
Christophe Genthon, Alexis Berne, Jacopo Grazioli, Claudio Durán Alarcón, Christophe Praz, and Brice Boudevillain
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 1605–1612, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1605-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-1605-2018, 2018
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Antarctica suffers from a severe shortage of in situ observations of precipitation. The APRES3 program contributes to improving observation from both the surface and from space. A field campaign with various instruments was deployed at the coast of Adélie Land, with an intensive observing period in austral summer 2015–16, then continuous radar monitoring through 2016 and beyond. This paper provides a compact presentation of the APRES3 dataset, which is now made open to the scientific community.
Nikola Besic, Josué Gehring, Christophe Praz, Jordi Figueras i Ventura, Jacopo Grazioli, Marco Gabella, Urs Germann, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4847–4866, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4847-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4847-2018, 2018
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In this paper we propose an innovative approach for hydrometeor de-mixing, i.e., to identify and quantify the presence of mixtures of different hydrometeor types in a radar sampling volume. It is a bin-based approach, inspired by conventional decomposition methods and evaluated using C- and X-band radar measurements compared with synchronous ground observations. The paper also investigates the potential influence of incoherency in the backscattering from hydrometeor mixtures in a radar volume.
Fanny Jeanneret, Giovanni Martucci, Simon Pinnock, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4153–4170, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4153-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4153-2018, 2018
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Above mountainous regions, satellites may have difficulty in discriminating snow from clouds: this study proposes a new method that combines different ground-based measurements to assess the sky cloudiness with high temporal resolution. The method's output is used as input to a model capable of identifying false satellite cloud detections. Results show that 62 ± 13 % of these false detections can be identified by the model when applied to the AVHRR-PM and MODIS Aqua data sets of the Cloud_cci.
Daniel Wolfensberger and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3883–3916, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3883-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3883-2018, 2018
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This work presents a polarimetric forward operator for the COSMO weather prediction model. This tool is able to simulate radar observables from the state of the atmosphere simulated by the model, taking into account most physical aspects of radar beam propagation and backscattering. This operator was validated with a large dataset of radar observations from several instruments and it was shown that is able to simulate a realistic radar signature in liquid precipitation.
Auguste Gires, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia, and Daniel Schertzer
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 10, 941–950, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-941-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-10-941-2018, 2018
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The Hydrology, Meteorology, and Complexity laboratory of École des Ponts ParisTech (hmco.enpc.fr) has made a data set of optical disdrometer measurements available that come from a campaign involving three collocated devices from two different manufacturers, relying on different underlying technologies (one Campbell Scientific PWS100 and two OTT Parsivel2 instruments). The campaign took place in January–February 2016 in the Paris area (France).
Abdellah Ichiba, Auguste Gires, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia, Daniel Schertzer, Philippe Bompard, and Marie-Claire Ten Veldhuis
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 331–350, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-331-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-22-331-2018, 2018
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This paper proposes a two-step investigation to illustrate the extent of scale effects in urban hydrology. First, fractal tools are used to highlight the scale dependency observed within GIS data inputted in urban hydrological models. Then an intensive multi-scale modelling work was carried out to confirm effects on model performances. The model was implemented at 17 spatial resolutions ranging from 100 to 5 m. Results allow the understanding of scale challenges in hydrology modelling.
Jacopo Grazioli, Christophe Genthon, Brice Boudevillain, Claudio Duran-Alarcon, Massimo Del Guasta, Jean-Baptiste Madeleine, and Alexis Berne
The Cryosphere, 11, 1797–1811, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1797-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/tc-11-1797-2017, 2017
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We present medium and long-term measurements of precipitation in a coastal region of Antarctica. These measurements are among the first of their kind on the Antarctic continent and combine remote sensing with in situ observations. The benefits of this synergy are demonstrated and the lessons learned from this measurements, which are still ongoing, are very important for the creation of similar observatories elsewhere on the continent.
Timothy H. Raupach and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 2573–2594, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2573-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-2573-2017, 2017
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The raindrop size distribution (DSD) describes the microstructure of rain. It is required knowledge for weather radar applications and has broad applicability to studies of rainfall processes, including weather models and rain retrieval algorithms. We present a new technique for estimating the DSD from polarimetric radar data. The new method was tested in three different domains, and its performance was found to be similar to and often better than an an existing DSD retrieval method.
Auguste Gires, Ioulia Tchiguirinskaia, Daniel Schertzer, Susana Ochoa-Rodriguez, Patrick Willems, Abdellah Ichiba, Li-Pen Wang, Rui Pina, Johan Van Assel, Guendalina Bruni, Damian Murla Tuyls, and Marie-Claire ten Veldhuis
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 2361–2375, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-2361-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-21-2361-2017, 2017
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Data from 10 urban or peri-urban catchments located in five EU countries are used to analyze the imperviousness distribution and sewer network geometry. Consistent scale invariant features are retrieved for both (fractal dimensions can be defined), which enables to define a level of urbanization. Imperviousness representation in operational model is also found to exhibit scale-invariant features (even multifractality). The research was carried out as part of the UE INTERREG IV RainGain project.
Christophe Praz, Yves-Alain Roulet, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 1335–1357, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1335-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-1335-2017, 2017
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The Multi-Angle Snowflake Camera (MASC) provides high-resolution pictures of individual falling snowflakes and ice crystals. A method is proposed to automatically classify these pictures into six classes of snowflakes as well to estimate the degree of riming and to detect whether or not the particles are melting. Multinomial logistic regression is used with a manually classified
reference set. The evaluation demonstrates the good and reliable performance of the proposed technique.
Guillaume Nord, Brice Boudevillain, Alexis Berne, Flora Branger, Isabelle Braud, Guillaume Dramais, Simon Gérard, Jérôme Le Coz, Cédric Legoût, Gilles Molinié, Joel Van Baelen, Jean-Pierre Vandervaere, Julien Andrieu, Coralie Aubert, Martin Calianno, Guy Delrieu, Jacopo Grazioli, Sahar Hachani, Ivan Horner, Jessica Huza, Raphaël Le Boursicaud, Timothy H. Raupach, Adriaan J. Teuling, Magdalena Uber, Béatrice Vincendon, and Annette Wijbrans
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 9, 221–249, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-221-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-9-221-2017, 2017
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A high space–time resolution dataset linking hydrometeorological forcing and hydro-sedimentary response in a mesoscale catchment (Auzon, 116 km2) of the Ardèche region (France) is presented. This region is subject to precipitating systems of Mediterranean origin, which can result in significant rainfall amount. The data presented cover a period of 4 years (2011–2014) and aim at improving the understanding of processes triggering flash floods.
Nikola Besic, Jordi Figueras i Ventura, Jacopo Grazioli, Marco Gabella, Urs Germann, and Alexis Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4425–4445, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4425-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4425-2016, 2016
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In this paper we propose a novel semi-supervised method for hydrometeor classification, which takes into account both the specificities of acquired polarimetric radar measurements and the presumed electromagnetic behavior of different hydrometeor types. The method has been applied on three datasets, each acquired by different C-band radar from the Swiss network, and on two X-band research radar datasets. The obtained classification is found to be of high quality.
Luca Panziera, Marco Gabella, Stefano Zanini, Alessandro Hering, Urs Germann, and Alexis Berne
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 2317–2332, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2317-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-2317-2016, 2016
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This paper presents a novel system to issue heavy rainfall alerts for predefined geographical regions by evaluating the sum of precipitation fallen in the immediate past and expected in the near future. In order to objectively define the thresholds for the alerts, an extreme rainfall analysis for the 159 regions used for official warnings in Switzerland was developed. It is shown that the system has additional lead time with respect to thunderstorm tracking tools targeted for convective storms.
Auguste Gires, Catherine L. Muller, Marie-Agathe le Gueut, and Daniel Schertzer
Hydrol. Earth Syst. Sci., 20, 1751–1763, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1751-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/hess-20-1751-2016, 2016
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Educational activities are now a common channel to increase impact of research projects. Here, we present innovative activities for young children that aim to help them (and their teachers) grasp some of the complex underlying scientific issues in environmental fields. The activities developed are focused on rainfall: observation and modeling of rain drop size and the succession of dry and rainy days, and writing of a scientific book. All activities were implemented in classrooms.
J. Grazioli, G. Lloyd, L. Panziera, C. R. Hoyle, P. J. Connolly, J. Henneberger, and A. Berne
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 13787–13802, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13787-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-13787-2015, 2015
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This study investigates the microphysics of winter alpine snowfall occurring in mixed-phase clouds in an inner-Alpine valley during CLACE2014. From polarimetric radar and in situ observations, riming is shown to be an important process leading to more intense snowfall. Riming is usually associated with more intense turbulence providing supercooled liquid water. Distinct features are identified in the vertical structure of polarimetric radar variables.
M. Stähli, M. Sättele, C. Huggel, B. W. McArdell, P. Lehmann, A. Van Herwijnen, A. Berne, M. Schleiss, A. Ferrari, A. Kos, D. Or, and S. M. Springman
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 15, 905–917, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-905-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-15-905-2015, 2015
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This review paper describes the state of the art in monitoring and predicting rapid mass movements for early warning. It further presents recent innovations in observation technologies and modelling to be used in future early warning systems (EWS). Finally, the paper proposes avenues towards successful implementation of next-generation EWS.
T. H. Raupach and A. Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 343–365, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-343-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-343-2015, 2015
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Using the 2-D video disdrometer (2DVD) as a reference, a technique to correct the spectra of drop size distribution (DSD) measured by Parsivel disdrometers (1st and 2nd generation) is proposed. The measured velocities and equivolume diameters are corrected to better match those from the 2DVD. The correction is evaluated using data from southern France and the Swiss Plateau. It appears to be similar for both climatologies, and to improve the consistency with colocated 2DVDs and rain gauges.
J. Grazioli, D. Tuia, and A. Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 149–170, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-149-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-149-2015, 2015
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A new approach for hydrometeor classification from polarimetric radar measurements is proposed. It takes adavantage of clustering techniques to objectively determine the number of hydrometeor classes that can be reliably identified. The proposed method is tested using observations from an X-band polarimetric radar in different regions and evaluated by comparison with existing algorithms and with measurements from a ground-based 2D video disdrometer (providing 2-D views of falling hydrometeors).
J. Grazioli, D. Tuia, S. Monhart, M. Schneebeli, T. Raupach, and A. Berne
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2869–2882, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2869-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2869-2014, 2014
S. Lovejoy, D. Schertzer, and D. Varon
Earth Syst. Dynam., 4, 439–454, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-439-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/esd-4-439-2013, 2013
A. Gires, I. Tchiguirinskaia, D. Schertzer, and S. Lovejoy
Nonlin. Processes Geophys., 20, 343–356, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-20-343-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/npg-20-343-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Warm and moist air intrusions into the winter Arctic: a Lagrangian view on the near-surface energy budgets
Convective updrafts near sea-breeze fronts
Evaluation of modelled summertime convective storms using polarimetric radar observations
Evaluating seasonal and regional distribution of snowfall in regional climate model simulations in the Arctic
Modeling impacts of ice-nucleating particles from marine aerosols on mixed-phase orographic clouds during 2015 ACAPEX field campaign
Influences of an entrainment–mixing parameterization on numerical simulations of cumulus and stratocumulus clouds
Investigation of ice cloud modeling capabilities for the irregularly shaped Voronoi ice scattering models in climate simulations
Assessing the potential for simplification in global climate model cloud microphysics
Technical note: Parameterising cloud base updraft velocity of marine stratocumuli
Radiative and microphysical responses of clouds to an anomalous increase in fire particles over the Maritime Continent in 2015
Intricate relations among particle collision, relative motion and clustering in turbulent clouds: computational observation and theory
The effect of marine ice-nucleating particles on mixed-phase clouds
A strong statistical link between aerosol indirect effects and the self-similarity of rainfall distributions
Quantifying albedo susceptibility biases in shallow clouds
Primary and secondary ice production: interactions and their relative importance
Microphysical processes producing high ice water contents (HIWCs) in tropical convective clouds during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign: dominant role of secondary ice production
Importance of aerosols and shape of the cloud droplet size distribution for convective clouds and precipitation
Secondary ice production processes in wintertime alpine mixed-phase clouds
Multi-thermals and high concentrations of secondary ice: a modelling study of convective clouds during the Ice in Clouds Experiment – Dust (ICE-D) campaign
Arctic mixed-phase clouds sometimes dissipate due to insufficient aerosol: evidence from observations and idealized simulations
Subgrid-scale horizontal and vertical variation of cloud water in stratocumulus clouds: a case study based on LES and comparisons with in situ observations
A vertical transport window of water vapor in the troposphere over the Tibetan Plateau with implications for global climate change
Impact of Holuhraun volcano aerosols on clouds in cloud-system resolving simulations
Box model trajectory studies of contrail formation using a particle-based cloud microphysics scheme
Updraft dynamics and microphysics: on the added value of the cumulus thermal reference frame in simulations of aerosol–deep convection interactions
Demistify: a large-eddy simulation (LES) and single-column model (SCM) intercomparison of radiation fog
Case study of a moisture intrusion over the Arctic with the ICOsahedral Non-hydrostatic (ICON) model: resolution dependence of its representation
New investigations on homogeneous ice nucleation: the effects of water activity and water saturation formulations
Cloud droplet formation at the base of tropical convective clouds: closure between modeling and measurement results of ACRIDICON–CHUVA
Impacts of long-range-transported mineral dust on summertime convective cloud and precipitation: a case study over the Taiwan region
Model emulation to understand the joint effects of ice-nucleating particles and secondary ice production on deep convective anvil cirrus
Improving the representation of aggregation in a two-moment microphysical scheme with statistics of multi-frequency Doppler radar observations
Overview towards improved understanding of the mechanisms leading to heavy precipitation in the western Mediterranean: lessons learned from HyMeX
Midlatitude mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with aerosols: how ice processes affect microphysical, dynamic, and thermodynamic development in those clouds and interactions?
Tracking the influence of cloud condensation nuclei on summer diurnal precipitating systems over complex topography in Taiwan
Revisiting adiabatic fraction estimations in cumulus clouds: high-resolution simulations with a passive tracer
Impact of hygroscopic seeding on the initiation of precipitation formation: results of a hybrid bin microphysics parcel model
Aerosol–cloud interactions: the representation of heterogeneous ice activation in cloud models
Sensitivity of precipitation formation to secondary ice production in winter orographic mixed-phase clouds
Environmental sensitivities of shallow-cumulus dilution – Part 2: Vertical wind profile
Supersaturation, buoyancy, and deep convection dynamics
How does the Environment Modulate Aerosol Impacts on Tropical Sea Breeze Convective Systems?
Statistical properties of a stochastic model of eddy hopping
Understanding the model representation of clouds based on visible and infrared satellite observations
Impact of high- and low-vorticity turbulence on cloud–environment mixing and cloud microphysics processes
Preconditioning of overcast-to-broken cloud transitions by riming in marine cold air outbreaks
Aitken mode particles as CCN in aerosol- and updraft-sensitive regimes of cloud droplet formation
Ice multiplication from ice–ice collisions in the high Arctic: sensitivity to ice habit, rimed fraction, ice type and uncertainties in the numerical description of the process
Contrail formation within cirrus: high-resolution simulations using ICON-LEM
The climate impact of COVID-19-induced contrail changes
Cheng You, Michael Tjernström, and Abhay Devasthale
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8037–8057, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8037-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8037-2022, 2022
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In winter when solar radiation is absent in the Arctic, the poleward transport of heat and moisture into the high Arctic becomes the main contribution of Arctic warming. Over completely frozen ocean sectors, total surface energy budget is dominated by net long-wave heat, while over the Barents Sea, with an open ocean to the south, total net surface energy budget is dominated by the surface turbulent heat.
Shizuo Fu, Richard Rotunno, and Huiwen Xue
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7727–7738, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7727-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7727-2022, 2022
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The convective updrafts near the sea-breeze fronts (SBFs) play important roles in initiating deep convection, but their characteristics are not well understood. By performing large-eddy simulations, we explain why the updrafts near the SBF are larger than but have similar strength to the updrafts ahead of the SBF. The results should also apply to other boundary-layer convergence zones similar to the SBF.
Prabhakar Shrestha, Silke Trömel, Raquel Evaristo, and Clemens Simmer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7593–7618, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7593-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7593-2022, 2022
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The study makes use of ensemble numerical simulations with forward operator to evaluate the simulated cloud and precipitation processes with radar observations. While comparing model data with radar has its own challenges due to errors in the forward operator and processed radar measurements, the model was generally found to underestimate the high reflectivity, width/magnitude (value) of ZDR columns and high precipitation.
Annakaisa von Lerber, Mario Mech, Annette Rinke, Damao Zhang, Melanie Lauer, Ana Radovan, Irina Gorodetskaya, and Susanne Crewell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 7287–7317, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7287-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-7287-2022, 2022
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Snowfall is an important climate indicator. However, microphysical snowfall processes are challenging for atmospheric models. In this study, the performance of a regional climate model is evaluated in modeling the spatial and temporal distribution of Arctic snowfall when compared to CloudSat satellite observations. Excellent agreement in averaged annual snowfall rates is found, and the shown methodology offers a promising diagnostic tool to investigate the shown differences further.
Yun Lin, Jiwen Fan, Pengfei Li, Lai-yung Ruby Leung, Paul J. DeMott, Lexie Goldberger, Jennifer Comstock, Ying Liu, Jong-Hoon Jeong, and Jason Tomlinson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6749–6771, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6749-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6749-2022, 2022
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How sea spray aerosols may affect cloud and precipitation over the region by acting as ice-nucleating particles (INPs) is unknown. We explored the effects of INPs from marine aerosols on orographic cloud and precipitation for an atmospheric river event observed during the 2015 ACAPEX field campaign. The marine INPs enhance the formation of ice and snow, leading to less shallow warm clouds but more mixed-phase and deep clouds. This work suggests models need to consider the impacts of marine INPs.
Xiaoqi Xu, Chunsong Lu, Yangang Liu, Shi Luo, Xin Zhou, Satoshi Endo, Lei Zhu, and Yuan Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5459–5475, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5459-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5459-2022, 2022
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A new entrainment–mixing parameterization which can be directly implemented in microphysics schemes without requiring the relative humidity of the entrained air is proposed based on the explicit mixing parcel model. The parameterization is implemented in the two-moment microphysics scheme and exhibits different effects on different types of clouds and even on different stages of stratocumulus clouds, which are affected by turbulent dissipation rate and aerosol concentration.
Ming Li, Husi Letu, Yiran Peng, Hiroshi Ishimoto, Yanluan Lin, Takashi Y. Nakajima, Anthony J. Baran, Zengyuan Guo, Yonghui Lei, and Jiancheng Shi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4809–4825, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4809-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4809-2022, 2022
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To build on the previous investigations of the Voronoi model in the remote sensing retrievals of ice cloud products, this paper developed an ice cloud parameterization scheme based on the single-scattering properties of the Voronoi model and evaluate it through simulations with the Community Integrated Earth System Model (CIESM). Compared with four representative ice cloud schemes, results show that the Voronoi model has good capabilities of ice cloud modeling in the climate model.
Ulrike Proske, Sylvaine Ferrachat, David Neubauer, Martin Staab, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4737–4762, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4737-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4737-2022, 2022
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Cloud microphysical processes shape cloud properties and are therefore important to represent in climate models. Their parameterization has grown more complex, making the model results more difficult to interpret. Using sensitivity analysis we test how the global aerosol–climate model ECHAM-HAM reacts to changes to these parameterizations. The model is sensitive to the parameterization of ice crystal autoconversion but not to, e.g., self-collection, suggesting that it may be simplified.
Jaakko Ahola, Tomi Raatikainen, Muzaffer Ege Alper, Jukka-Pekka Keskinen, Harri Kokkola, Antti Kukkurainen, Antti Lipponen, Jia Liu, Kalle Nordling, Antti-Ilari Partanen, Sami Romakkaniemi, Petri Räisänen, Juha Tonttila, and Hannele Korhonen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4523–4537, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4523-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4523-2022, 2022
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Clouds are important for the climate, and cloud droplets have a significant role in cloud properties. Cloud droplets form when air rises and cools and water vapour condenses on small particles that can be natural or of anthropogenic origin. Currently, the updraft velocity, meaning how fast the air rises, is poorly represented in global climate models. In our study, we show three methods that will improve the depiction of updraft velocity and which properties are vital to updrafts.
Azusa Takeishi and Chien Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 4129–4147, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4129-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-4129-2022, 2022
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Nanometer- to micrometer-sized particles in the atmosphere, namely aerosols, play a crucial role in cloud formation as cloud droplets form on aerosols. This study uses a weather forecasting model to examine the impacts of a large emission of aerosol particles from biomass burning activities over Southeast Asia. We find that additional cloud droplets brought by fire-emitted particles can lead to taller and more reflective convective clouds with increased rainfall.
Ewe-Wei Saw and Xiaohui Meng
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3779–3788, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3779-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3779-2022, 2022
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Collision–coagulation of small droplets in turbulent clouds leads to the production of rain. Turbulence causes droplet clustering and higher relative droplet velocities, and these should enhance the collision–coagulation rate. We find, surprisingly, that collision–coagulation starkly diminishes clustering and strongly alters relative velocities. We provide a theory that explains this result. Our results call for a new perspective on how we understand particle/droplet collision in clouds.
Tomi Raatikainen, Marje Prank, Jaakko Ahola, Harri Kokkola, Juha Tonttila, and Sami Romakkaniemi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3763–3778, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3763-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3763-2022, 2022
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Mineral dust or similar ice-nucleating particles (INPs) are needed to initiate cloud droplet freezing at temperatures common in shallow clouds. In this work we examine how INPs that are released from the sea surface impact marine clouds. Our high-resolution simulations show that turbulent updraughts carry these particles effectively up to the clouds, where they initiate cloud droplet freezing. Sea surface INP emissions become more important with decreasing background dust INP concentrations.
Kalli Furtado and Paul Field
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3391–3407, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3391-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3391-2022, 2022
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The complex processes involved mean that no simple answer to this
question has so far been discovered: do aerosols increase or decrease precipitation? Using high-resolution weather simulations, we find a self-similar property of rainfall that is not affected by aerosols. Using this invariant, we can collapse all our simulations to a single curve. So, although aerosol effects on rain are many, there may be a universal constraint on the number of degrees of freedom needed to represent them.
Graham Feingold, Tom Goren, and Takanobu Yamaguchi
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3303–3319, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3303-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3303-2022, 2022
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The evaluation of radiative forcing associated with aerosol–cloud interactions remains a significant source of uncertainty in future climate projections. Using high-resolution numerical model output, we mimic typical satellite retrieval methodologies to show that data aggregation can introduce significant error (hundreds of percent) in the cloud albedo susceptibility metric. Spatial aggregation errors tend to be countered by temporal aggregation errors.
Xi Zhao and Xiaohong Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2585–2600, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2585-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2585-2022, 2022
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The goal of this study is to investigate the relative importance and interactions of primary and secondary ice production in the Arctic mixed-phase clouds. Our results show that the SIP is not only a result of ice crystals produced from ice nucleation, but also competes with the ice production; conversely, strong ice nucleation also suppresses SIP.
Yongjie Huang, Wei Wu, Greg M. McFarquhar, Ming Xue, Hugh Morrison, Jason Milbrandt, Alexei V. Korolev, Yachao Hu, Zhipeng Qu, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, and Ivan Heckman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2365–2384, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022, 2022
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Numerous small ice crystals in tropical convective storms are difficult to detect and could be potentially hazardous for commercial aircraft. Previous numerical simulations failed to reproduce this phenomenon and hypothesized that key microphysical processes are still lacking in current models to realistically simulate the phenomenon. This study uses numerical experiments to confirm the dominant role of secondary ice production in the formation of these large numbers of small ice crystals.
Christian Barthlott, Amirmahdi Zarboo, Takumi Matsunobu, and Christian Keil
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2153–2172, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2153-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2153-2022, 2022
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The relative impact of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and the shape parameter of the cloud droplet size distribution is evaluated in realistic convection-resolving simulations. We find that an increase in the shape parameter can produce almost as large a variation in precipitation as a CCN increase from maritime to polluted conditions. The choice of the shape parameter may be more important than previously thought for determining cloud radiative characteristics.
Paraskevi Georgakaki, Georgia Sotiropoulou, Étienne Vignon, Anne-Claire Billault-Roux, Alexis Berne, and Athanasios Nenes
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1965–1988, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1965-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1965-2022, 2022
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The modelling study focuses on the importance of ice multiplication processes in orographic mixed-phase clouds, which is one of the least understood cloud types in the climate system. We show that the consideration of ice seeding and secondary ice production through ice–ice collisional breakup is essential for correct predictions of precipitation in mountainous terrain, with important implications for radiation processes.
Zhiqiang Cui, Alan Blyth, Yahui Huang, Gary Lloyd, Thomas Choularton, Keith Bower, Paul Field, Rachel Hawker, and Lindsay Bennett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1649–1667, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1649-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1649-2022, 2022
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High concentrations of ice particles were observed at temperatures greater than about –8 C. The default scheme of the secondary ice production cannot explain the high concentrations. Relaxing the conditions for secondary ice production or considering dust aerosol alone is insufficient to produce the observed amount of ice particles. It is likely that multi-thermals play an important role in producing very high concentrations of secondary ice particles in some tropical clouds.
Lucas J. Sterzinger, Joseph Sedlar, Heather Guy, Ryan R. Neely III, and Adele L. Igel
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-36, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-36, 2022
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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Aerosol particles are required for cloud droplets to form. The Arctic atmosphere often has much fewer aerosol than at lower latitudes. In this study, we investigate whether aerosol concentrations can drop so low as to no longer support a cloud. We use observations to initialize idealized model simulations to investigate a "worse case scenario" where all aerosol are removed from the environment instantaneously. We find that this mechanism is possible in two cases and unlikely in the third.
Justin A. Covert, David B. Mechem, and Zhibo Zhang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1159–1174, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1159-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1159-2022, 2022
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Stratocumulus play an important role in Earth's radiative balance. The simulation of these cloud systems in climate models is difficult due to the scale at which cloud microphysical processes occur compared with model grid sizes. In this study, we use large-eddy simulation to analyze subgrid-scale variability of cloud water and its implications on a cloud water to drizzle model enhancement factor E. We find current values of E may be too large and that E should be vertically dependent in models.
Xiangde Xu, Chan Sun, Deliang Chen, Tianliang Zhao, Jianjun Xu, Shengjun Zhang, Juan Li, Bin Chen, Yang Zhao, Hongxiong Xu, Lili Dong, Xiaoyun Sun, and Yan Zhu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1149–1157, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1149-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1149-2022, 2022
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A vertical transport window of tropospheric vapor exists on the Tibetan Plateau (TP). The TP's thermal forcing drives the vertical transport
windowof vapor in the troposphere. The effects of the TP's vertical transport window of vapor are of importance in global climate change.
Mahnoosh Haghighatnasab, Jan Kretzschmar, Karoline Block, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-38, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-38, 2022
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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The impact of aerosols emitted by the Holuhraun volcanic eruption on liquid clouds was assessed from a pair of cloud-system resolving simulations along with satellite retrievals. Inside and outside the plume were compared in terms of their statistical distributions. Analyses indicated enhancement for cloud droplet number concentration inside the volcano plume in model simulations and satellite retrievals while there was on average a small effect on both liquid water path and cloud fraction.
Andreas Bier, Simon Unterstrasser, and Xavier Vancassel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 823–845, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-823-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-823-2022, 2022
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We investigate contrail formation in an aircraft plume with a particle-based multi-trajectory 0D model. Due to the high plume heterogeneity, contrail ice crystals form first near the plume edge and then in the plume centre. The number of ice crystals varies strongly with ambient conditions and soot properties near the contrail formation threshold. Our results imply that the multi-trajectory approach does not necessarily lead to improved scientific results compared to a single mean trajectory.
Daniel Hernandez-Deckers, Toshihisa Matsui, and Ann M. Fridlind
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 711–724, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-711-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-711-2022, 2022
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We investigate how the concentration of aerosols (small particles that serve as seeds for cloud droplets) affect the dynamics of simulated clouds using two different frameworks, i.e., the traditional selection of cloudy rising grid points and tracking small-scale coherent rising features (cumulus thermals). By doing so, we find that these cumulus thermals reveal useful information about the coupling between internal cloud circulations and cloud droplet and raindrop formation.
Ian Boutle, Wayne Angevine, Jian-Wen Bao, Thierry Bergot, Ritthik Bhattacharya, Andreas Bott, Leo Ducongé, Richard Forbes, Tobias Goecke, Evelyn Grell, Adrian Hill, Adele L. Igel, Innocent Kudzotsa, Christine Lac, Bjorn Maronga, Sami Romakkaniemi, Juerg Schmidli, Johannes Schwenkel, Gert-Jan Steeneveld, and Benoît Vié
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 319–333, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-319-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-319-2022, 2022
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Fog forecasting is one of the biggest problems for numerical weather prediction. By comparing many models used for fog forecasting with others used for fog research, we hoped to help guide forecast improvements. We show some key processes that, if improved, will help improve fog forecasting, such as how water is deposited on the ground. We also showed that research models were not themselves a suitable baseline for comparison, and we discuss what future observations are required to improve them.
Hélène Bresson, Annette Rinke, Mario Mech, Daniel Reinert, Vera Schemann, Kerstin Ebell, Marion Maturilli, Carolina Viceto, Irina Gorodetskaya, and Susanne Crewell
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 173–196, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-173-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-173-2022, 2022
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Arctic warming is pronounced, and one factor in this is the poleward atmospheric transport of heat and moisture. This study assesses the 4D structure of an Arctic moisture intrusion event which occurred in June 2017. For the first time, high-resolution pan-Arctic ICON simulations are performed and compared with global models, reanalysis, and observations. Results show the added value of high resolution in the event representation and the impact of the intrusion on the surface energy fluxes.
Manuel Baumgartner, Christian Rolf, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Julia Schneider, Tobias Schorr, Ottmar Möhler, Peter Spichtinger, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 65–91, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, 2022
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An important mechanism for the appearance of ice particles in the upper troposphere at low temperatures is homogeneous nucleation. This process is commonly described by the
Koop line, predicting the humidity at freezing. However, laboratory measurements suggest that the freezing humidities are above the Koop line, motivating the present study to investigate the influence of different physical parameterizations on the homogeneous freezing with the help of a detailed numerical model.
Ramon Campos Braga, Barbara Ervens, Daniel Rosenfeld, Meinrat O. Andreae, Jan-David Förster, Daniel Fütterer, Lianet Hernández Pardo, Bruna A. Holanda, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Ovid O. Krüger, Oliver Lauer, Luiz A. T. Machado, Christopher Pöhlker, Daniel Sauer, Christiane Voigt, Adrian Walser, Manfred Wendisch, Ulrich Pöschl, and Mira L. Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17513–17528, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17513-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17513-2021, 2021
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Interactions of aerosol particles with clouds represent a large uncertainty in estimates of climate change. Properties of aerosol particles control their ability to act as cloud condensation nuclei. Using aerosol measurements in the Amazon, we performed model studies to compare predicted and measured cloud droplet number concentrations at cloud bases. Our results confirm previous estimates of particle hygroscopicity in this region.
Yanda Zhang, Fangqun Yu, Gan Luo, Jiwen Fan, and Shuai Liu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17433–17451, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17433-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17433-2021, 2021
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This paper explores the impacts of dust on summertime convective cloud and precipitation through a numerical experiment. The result indicates that the long-range-transported dust can notably affect the properties of convective cloud and precipitation by enhancing immersion freezing and invigorating convection. We also analyze the different dust effects predicted by the Morrison and SBM schemes, which are partially attributed to the saturation adjustment approach utilized in the bulk schemes.
Rachel E. Hawker, Annette K. Miltenberger, Jill S. Johnson, Jonathan M. Wilkinson, Adrian A. Hill, Ben J. Shipway, Paul R. Field, Benjamin J. Murray, and Ken S. Carslaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17315–17343, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17315-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17315-2021, 2021
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We find that ice-nucleating particles (INPs), aerosols that can initiate the freezing of cloud droplets, cause substantial changes to the properties of radiatively important convectively generated anvil cirrus. The number concentration of INPs had a large effect on ice crystal number concentration while the INP temperature dependence controlled ice crystal size and cloud fraction. The results indicate information on INP number and source is necessary for the representation of cloud glaciation.
Markus Karrer, Axel Seifert, Davide Ori, and Stefan Kneifel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17133–17166, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17133-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17133-2021, 2021
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Modeling precipitation is of great relevance, e.g., for mitigating damage caused by extreme weather. A key component in accurate precipitation modeling is aggregation, i.e., sticking together of snowflakes. Simulating aggregation is difficult due to multiple parameters that are not well-known. Knowing how these parameters affect aggregation can help its simulation. We put new parameters in the model and select a combination of parameters with which the model can simulate observations better.
Samira Khodayar, Silvio Davolio, Paolo Di Girolamo, Cindy Lebeaupin Brossier, Emmanouil Flaounas, Nadia Fourrie, Keun-Ok Lee, Didier Ricard, Benoit Vie, Francois Bouttier, Alberto Caldas-Alvarez, and Veronique Ducrocq
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17051–17078, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17051-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17051-2021, 2021
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Heavy precipitation (HP) constitutes a major meteorological threat in the western Mediterranean. Every year, recurrent events affect the area with fatal consequences. Despite this being a well-known issue, open questions still remain. The understanding of the underlying mechanisms and the modeling representation of the events must be improved. In this article we present the most recent lessons learned from the Hydrological Cycle in the Mediterranean Experiment (HyMeX).
Seoung Soo Lee, Kyung-Ja Ha, Manguttathil Gopalakrishnan Manoj, Mohammad Kamruzzaman, Hyungjun Kim, Nobuyuki Utsumi, Youtong Zheng, Byung-Gon Kim, Chang Hoon Jung, Junshik Um, Jianping Guo, Kyoung Ock Choi, and Go-Un Kim
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16843–16868, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16843-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16843-2021, 2021
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Using a modeling framework, a midlatitude stratocumulus cloud system is simulated. It is found that cloud mass in the system becomes very low due to interactions between ice and liquid particles compared to that in the absence of ice particles. It is also found that interactions between cloud mass and aerosols lead to a reduction in cloud mass in the system, and this is contrary to an aerosol-induced increase in cloud mass in the absence of ice particles.
Yu-Hung Chang, Wei-Ting Chen, Chien-Ming Wu, Christopher Moseley, and Chia-Chun Wu
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16709–16725, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16709-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16709-2021, 2021
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The impacts of increasing cloud condensation nuclei on summertime diurnal precipitation in weak synoptic weather over complex topography in Taiwan were investigated by applying object-based tracking analyses to semi-realistic large-eddy simulations. In hotspots of orographic locking processes, rain initiation is delayed, which prolongs the development of local circulation and convection. For this organized regime, the occurrence of extreme diurnal precipitating systems is notably enhanced.
Eshkol Eytan, Ilan Koren, Orit Altaratz, Mark Pinsky, and Alexander Khain
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16203–16217, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16203-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16203-2021, 2021
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Describing cloud mixing processes is among the most challenging fronts in cloud physics. Therefore, the adiabatic fraction (AF) that serves as a mixing measure is a valuable metric. We use high-resolution (10 m) simulations of single clouds with a passive tracer to test the skill of different methods used to derive AF. We highlight a method that is insensitive to the available cloud samples and allows considering microphysical effects on AF estimations in different environmental conditions.
Istvan Geresdi, Lulin Xue, Sisi Chen, Youssef Wehbe, Roelof Bruintjes, Jared A. Lee, Roy M. Rasmussen, Wojciech W. Grabowski, Noemi Sarkadi, and Sarah A. Tessendorf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16143–16159, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16143-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16143-2021, 2021
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By releasing soluble aerosols into the convective clouds, cloud seeding potentially enhances rainfall. The seeding impacts are hard to quantify with observations only. Numerical models that represent the detailed physics of aerosols, cloud and rain formation are used to investigate the seeding impacts on rain enhancement under different natural aerosol backgrounds and using different seeding materials. Our results indicate that seeding may enhance rainfall under certain conditions.
Bernd Kärcher and Claudia Marcolli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15213–15220, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15213-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15213-2021, 2021
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Aerosol–cloud interactions play an important role in climate change. Simulations of the competition between homogeneous solution droplet freezing and heterogeneous ice nucleation can be compromised by the misapplication of ice-active particle fractions frequently derived from laboratory measurements or parametrizations. Our study frames the problem and establishes a solution that is easy to implement in cloud models.
Zane Dedekind, Annika Lauber, Sylvaine Ferrachat, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 15115–15134, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15115-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-15115-2021, 2021
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The RACLETS campaign combined cloud and snow research to improve the understanding of precipitation formation in clouds. A numerical weather prediction model, COSMO, was used to assess the importance of ice crystal enhancement by ice–ice collisions for cloud properties. We found that the number of ice crystals increased by 1 to 3 orders of magnitude when ice–ice collisions were permitted to occur, reducing localized regions of high precipitation and, thereby, improving the model performance.
Sonja Drueke, Daniel J. Kirshbaum, and Pavlos Kollias
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14039–14058, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14039-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14039-2021, 2021
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This numerical study provides insights into the sensitivity of shallow-cumulus dilution to geostrophic vertical wind profile. The cumulus dilution is strongly sensitive to vertical wind shear in the cloud layer, with shallow cumuli being more diluted in sheared environments. On the other hand, wind shear in the subcloud layer leads to less diluted cumuli. The sensitivities are explained by jointly considering the impacts of vertical velocity and the properties of the entrained air.
Wojciech W. Grabowski and Hugh Morrison
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13997–14018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13997-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13997-2021, 2021
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The paper provides a discussion of key elements of moist convective dynamics: cloud buoyancy, latent heating, precipitation, and entrainment. The motivation comes from recent discussions concerning differences in convective dynamics in polluted and pristine environments.
J. Minnie Park and Susan C. van den Heever
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-693, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-693, 2021
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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This study explores how increased aerosol particles impact tropical sea breeze cloud systems under different environments and how a range of environments modulate these cloud responses. Overall, sea breeze flows and clouds that develop therein become weaker due to interactions between aerosols, sunlight, and land surface. In addition, surface rainfall also decreases with more aerosol particles. Weakening of cloud and rain with more aerosols are found irrespective of 130 different environments.
Izumi Saito, Takeshi Watanabe, and Toshiyuki Gotoh
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 13119–13130, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13119-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-13119-2021, 2021
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We provide various statistical properties for the stochastic model
of eddy hopping, which is a novel cloud microphysical model that
accounts for the effect of the supersaturation fluctuation at unresolved
scales on the growth of cloud droplets and on spectral broadening
in a turbulent cloud. Our results indicate that the model can be
improved to have better fidelity to the reference data and to require
less computational cost.
Stefan Geiss, Leonhard Scheck, Alberto de Lozar, and Martin Weissmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12273–12290, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12273-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12273-2021, 2021
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This study demonstrates the benefits of using both visible and infrared satellite channels to evaluate clouds in numerical weather prediction models. Combining these highly resolved observations provides significantly more and complementary information than using only infrared observations. The visible observations are particularly sensitive to subgrid water clouds, which are not well constrained by other observations.
Bipin Kumar, Rahul Ranjan, Man-Kong Yau, Sudarsan Bera, and Suryachandra A. Rao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12317–12329, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12317-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12317-2021, 2021
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The characteristics of turbulent clouds are affected by the entrainment of ambient dry air and its subsequent mixing. A turbulent flow generates vorticities of different intensities, and regions with high vorticity (HV) and low vorticity (LV) exist. This study provides a detailed analysis of different properties of turbulent flows and cloud droplets in the HV and LV regions in order to understand the impact of vorticity production on cloud microphysical and mixing processes.
Florian Tornow, Andrew S. Ackerman, and Ann M. Fridlind
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 12049–12067, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12049-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-12049-2021, 2021
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Cold air outbreaks affect the local energy budget by forming bright boundary layer clouds that, once it rains, evolve into dimmer, broken cloud fields that are depleted of condensation nuclei – an evolution consistent with closed-to-open cell transitions. We find that cloud ice accelerates this evolution, primarily via riming prior to rain onset, which (1) reduces liquid water, (2) reduces condensation nuclei, and (3) leads to early precipitation cooling and moistening below cloud.
Mira L. Pöhlker, Minghui Zhang, Ramon Campos Braga, Ovid O. Krüger, Ulrich Pöschl, and Barbara Ervens
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 11723–11740, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11723-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-11723-2021, 2021
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Clouds cool our atmosphere. The role of small aerosol particles in affecting them represents one of the largest uncertainties in current estimates of climate change. Traditionally it is assumed that cloud droplets only form particles of diameters ~ 100 nm (
accumulation mode). Previous studies suggest that this can also occur in smaller particles (
Aitken mode). Our study provides a general framework to estimate under which aerosol and cloud conditions Aitken mode particles affect clouds.
Georgia Sotiropoulou, Luisa Ickes, Athanasios Nenes, and Annica M. L. Ekman
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9741–9760, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9741-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9741-2021, 2021
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Mixed-phase clouds are a large source of uncertainty in projections of the Arctic climate. This is partly due to the poor representation of the cloud ice formation processes. Implementing a parameterization for ice multiplication due to mechanical breakup upon collision of two ice particles in a high-resolution model improves cloud ice phase representation; however, cloud liquid remains overestimated.
Pooja Verma and Ulrike Burkhardt
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-497, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2021-497, 2021
Revised manuscript accepted for ACP
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This paper investigates contrail ice formation within cirrus and the impact of natural cirrus on the contrail formation in the high-resolution ICON-LEM over Germany. The formation of contrail ice crystals often leads to changes in cirrus ice crystal number concentrations of a few orders of magnitude. Contrail formation is affected by pre-existing cirrus leading to increased ice nucleation rates and larger ice crystal survival rate specifically in optically thick cirrus.
Andrew Gettelman, Chieh-Chieh Chen, and Charles G. Bardeen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 9405–9416, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9405-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-9405-2021, 2021
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The COVID-19 pandemic caused significant economic disruption in 2020 and severely impacted air traffic. We use a climate model to evaluate the effect of the reductions in aviation on climate in 2020. Contrails, in general, warm the planet, and COVID-19-related reductions in contrails cooled the land surface in 2020. The timing of reductions in aviation was important, and this may change how we think about the future effects of contrails.
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Bohme, T., Van Lipzig, N., Delobbe, L., and Seifert, A.: Precipitation patterns above Belgium using weather radar and COSMO model reflectivity data, in: Proceedings of the 8th International Symposium on Tropospheric Profiling, Delft, the Netherlands, available at: http://www.ch2011.ch/pdf/CH2011reportHIGH.pdf (last access: 13 August 2017), 2009.
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Short summary
Precipitation intensities simulated by the COSMO weather prediction model are compared to radar observations over a range of spatial and temporal scales using the universal multifractal framework. Our results highlight the strong influence of meteorological and topographical features on the multifractal characteristics of precipitation. Moreover, the influence of the subgrid parameterizations of COSMO is clearly visible by a break in the scaling properties that is absent from the radar data.
Precipitation intensities simulated by the COSMO weather prediction model are compared to radar...
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