Cloud-droplet growth due to supersaturation fluctuations in stratiform clouds

Li, Xiang-Yu; Svensson, Gunilla; Brandenburg, Axel; Haugen, Nils E. L.

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-639-2019

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-639-2019

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

Special issue:

Particle-based methods for simulating atmospheric aerosol...

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-639-2019

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

Articles | Volume 19, issue 1

Research article

|

17 Jan 2019

Research article |

| 17 Jan 2019

Cloud-droplet growth due to supersaturation fluctuations in stratiform clouds

Xiang-Yu Li, Gunilla Svensson, Axel Brandenburg, and Nils E. L. Haugen

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Final revised paper (published on 17 Jan 2019)
Preprint (discussion started on 28 Aug 2018)

Interactive discussion

Status: closed

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

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- Supplement

RC1: 'Report of acp-2018-644: “Cloud-droplet growth due to supersaturation fluctuations in stratiform clouds” by Li et al.', Anonymous Referee #1, 11 Oct 2018
- AC1: 'Response to anonymous Referee #1', Xiang-Yu Li, 04 Nov 2018
RC2: 'Review of "Cloud-droplet growth due to supersaturation fluctuations in stratiform clouds"', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 Oct 2018
- AC2: 'Response to anonymous Referee #2', Xiang-Yu Li, 04 Nov 2018

Peer-review completion

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

AR by Xiang-Yu Li on behalf of the Authors (04 Nov 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Referee Nomination & Report Request started (09 Nov 2018) by Ryan Sullivan

RR by Anonymous Referee #1 (19 Nov 2018)

RR by Anonymous Referee #2 (04 Dec 2018)

ED: Publish subject to minor revisions (review by editor) (10 Dec 2018) by Ryan Sullivan

AR by Xiang-Yu Li on behalf of the Authors (13 Dec 2018) Author's response Manuscript

ED: Publish as is (15 Dec 2018) by Ryan Sullivan

AR by Xiang-Yu Li on behalf of the Authors (16 Dec 2018) Manuscript

Short summary

The broadening of droplet size distributions in stratiform clouds, where the updraft velocity is almost zero, is puzzling. Without turbulence, the classical treatment of condensational growth of cloud droplets fails to explain this broadening. We investigated the time evolution of droplet size distributions using direct numerical simulations, where turbulence is resolved into the smallest scales. We found that the broadening is due to the turbulence-facilitated supersaturation fluctuations.