On the drivers of droplet variability in alpine mixed-phase clouds

Georgakaki, Paraskevi; Bougiatioti, Aikaterini; Wieder, Jörg; Mignani, Claudia; Ramelli, Fabiola; Kanji, Zamin A.; Henneberger, Jan; Hervo, Maxime; Berne, Alexis; Lohmann, Ulrike; Nenes, Athanasios

doi:https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10993-2021

Articles | Volume 21, issue 14

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10993-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10993-2021

© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 21, issue 14

Research article

|

20 Jul 2021

Research article |

| 20 Jul 2021

On the drivers of droplet variability in alpine mixed-phase clouds

Paraskevi Georgakaki, Aikaterini Bougiatioti, Jörg Wieder, Claudia Mignani, Fabiola Ramelli, Zamin A. Kanji, Jan Henneberger, Maxime Hervo, Alexis Berne, Ulrike Lohmann, and Athanasios Nenes

Supplement

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10993-2021-supplement

Data sets

Meteorological Data Meteosuisse https://gate.meteoswiss.ch/idaweb/login.do

CCN, hygroscopicity, predicted cloud droplet numbers Weissfluhjoch A. Nenes, P. Georgakaki, and A. Bougiatioti https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.198

Predicted cloud droplet numbers Davos Wolfgang A. Nenes, P. Georgakaki, and A. Bougiatioti https://doi.org/10.16904/envidat.199

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Short summary

Aerosol and cloud observations coupled with a droplet activation parameterization was used to investigate the aerosol–cloud droplet link in alpine mixed-phase clouds. Predicted droplet number, N_d, agrees with observations and never exceeds a characteristic “limiting droplet number”, N_d^lim, which depends solely on σ_w. N_d becomes velocity limited when it is within 50 % of N_d^lim. Identifying when dynamical changes control N_d variability is central for understanding aerosol–cloud interactions.