Technical note: The role of evolving surface tension in the formation of cloud droplets

Davies, James F.; Zuend, Andreas; Wilson, Kevin R.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2933-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2933-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-2933-2019

© Author(s) 2019. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 19, issue 5

Technical note

|

07 Mar 2019

Technical note |

| 07 Mar 2019

Technical note: The role of evolving surface tension in the formation of cloud droplets

James F. Davies, Andreas Zuend, and Kevin R. Wilson

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Final revised paper (published on 07 Mar 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 22 Nov 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

AC: Author comment | RC: Referee comment | SC: Short comment | EC: Editor comment

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RC1: 'Reviewer comment', Anonymous Referee #1, 26 Dec 2018
RC2: 'review of Davies et al.', Anonymous Referee #2, 18 Jan 2019
AC1: 'Response to RC1', James Davies, 12 Feb 2019
AC2: 'Response to RC2', James Davies, 12 Feb 2019

Peer-review completion

AR: Author's response | RR: Referee report | ED: Editor decision

AR by James Davies on behalf of the Authors (12 Feb 2019) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (19 Feb 2019) by Markus Ammann

AR by James Davies on behalf of the Authors (19 Feb 2019)

Short summary

The formation of cloud droplets involves the condensation of water onto preexisting particles in the atmosphere. The efficiency of this process depends on the nature of the particles, and recent work has shown that organic-rich particles may exhibit a suppressed surface tension that promotes the formation of cloud droplets. In this technical note, we discuss the mechanism for this and highlight the evolution of surface tension as the key factor in the extent of surface effects.