Articles | Volume 19, issue 11
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7839-2019
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-7839-2019
Research article
 | 
12 Jun 2019
Research article |  | 12 Jun 2019

Quantifying the aerosol effect on droplet size distribution at cloud top

Lianet Hernández Pardo, Luiz Augusto Toledo Machado, Micael Amore Cecchini, and Madeleine Sánchez Gácita

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This work analyzes the effects of changes in the environmental aerosol population on Amazonian clouds. The results confirm that the clouds can be very sensitive to changes in the aerosol properties, but the relative importance of each property is variable and depends on the values of the other aerosol characteristics, especially aerosol size. This is controlled by the degree to which the cloud mixes with the surrounding air and by the efficiency with which aerosols are consumed by droplets.
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