Articles | Volume 21, issue 10
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7429-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-7429-2021
© Author(s) 2021. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
18 May 2021
Research article |
| 18 May 2021
| 18 May 2021
Air traffic and contrail changes over Europe during COVID-19: a model study
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 82234 Oberpaffenhofen, Germany
Ian Poll
Aerospace Engineering, Cranfield University, Cranfield, UK
Roger Teoh
Centre for Transport Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
Rainer Koelle
Performance Review Unit, EUROCONTROL, 1130 Brussels, Belgium
Enrico Spinielli
Performance Review Unit, EUROCONTROL, 1130 Brussels, Belgium
Jarlath Molloy
NATS, Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire, PO15 7FL, UK
George S. Koudis
NATS, Whiteley, Fareham, Hampshire, PO15 7FL, UK
Robert Baumann
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 82234 Oberpaffenhofen, Germany
Luca Bugliaro
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 82234 Oberpaffenhofen, Germany
Marc Stettler
Centre for Transport Studies, Department of Civil and Environmental
Engineering, Imperial College, London, SW7 2AZ, UK
Christiane Voigt
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, 82234 Oberpaffenhofen, Germany
Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Johannes Gutenberg-University, Mainz, Germany
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Ziming Wang, Luca Bugliaro, Klaus Gierens, Michaela I. Hegglin, Susanne Rohs, Andreas Petzold, Stefan Kaufmann, and Christiane Voigt
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Oliver G. A. Driver, Marc E. J. Stettler, and Edward Gryspeerdt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 1115–1134, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1115-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-1115-2025, 2025
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Kira Zeider, Kayla McCauley, Sanja Dmitrovic, Leong Wai Siu, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Simon Kirschler, John B. Nowak, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, Paquita Zuidema, and Armin Sorooshian
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Our study is using aircraft measurements from the HALO-(𝒜𝒞)³ campaign to investigate the transition from organized Arctic cloud street structures to more scattered cloud shapes. We show that lower wind speeds cause this transition. In addition we look at the changes of the cloud coverage, the height of the clouds, the cloud particles and the radiative properties.
Zebediah Engberg, Roger Teoh, Tristan Abbott, Thomas Dean, Marc E. J. Stettler, and Marc L. Shapiro
Geosci. Model Dev., 18, 253–286, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-253-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-18-253-2025, 2025
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Contrails forming in some atmospheric conditions may persist and become strongly warming cirrus, while in other conditions may be neutral or cooling. We develop a contrail forecast model to predict contrail climate forcing for any arbitrary point in space and time and explore integration into flight planning and air traffic management. This approach enables contrail interventions to target high-probability high-climate-impact regions and reduce unintended consequences of contrail management.
Jade Low, Roger Teoh, Joel Ponsonby, Edward Gryspeerdt, Marc Shapiro, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 37–56, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-37-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-37-2025, 2025
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The radiative forcing due to contrails is of the same order of magnitude as aviation CO2 emissions but has a higher uncertainty. Observations are vital to improve our understanding of the contrail lifecycle, improve models, and measure the effect of mitigation action. Here, we use ground-based cameras combined with flight telemetry to track visible contrails and measure their lifetime and width. We evaluate model predictions and demonstrate the capability of this approach.
Ewan Crosbie, Johnathan Hair, Amin Nehrir, Richard Ferrare, Chris Hostetler, Taylor Shingler, David Harper, Marta Fenn, James Collins, Rory Barton-Grimley, Brian Collister, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Simon Kirschler, and Armin Sorooshian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3844, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3844, 2024
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A method was developed to extract information from airborne lidar observations about the distribution of ice and liquid water within clouds. The method specifically targets signatures of horizontal and vertical gradients in ice and water that appear in the polarization of the lidar signals. The method was tested against direct measurements of the cloud properties collected by a second aircraft.
Nina Maherndl, Manuel Moser, Imke Schirmacher, Aaron Bansemer, Johannes Lucke, Christiane Voigt, and Maximilian Maahn
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13935–13960, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13935-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13935-2024, 2024
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It is not clear why ice crystals in clouds occur in clusters. Here, airborne measurements of clouds in mid-latitudes and high latitudes are used to study the spatial variability of ice. Further, we investigate the influence of riming, which occurs when liquid droplets freeze onto ice crystals. We find that riming enhances the occurrence of ice clusters. In the Arctic, riming leads to ice clustering at spatial scales of 3–5 km. This is due to updrafts and not higher amounts of liquid water.
Theresa Harlass, Rebecca Dischl, Stefan Kaufmann, Raphael Märkl, Daniel Sauer, Monika Scheibe, Paul Stock, Tiziana Bräuer, Andreas Dörnbrack, Anke Roiger, Hans Schlager, Ulrich Schumann, Magdalena Pühl, Tobias Schripp, Tobias Grein, Linda Bondorf, Charles Renard, Maxime Gauthier, Mark Johnson, Darren Luff, Paul Madden, Peter Swann, Denise Ahrens, Reetu Sallinen, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11807–11822, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11807-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11807-2024, 2024
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The amount of sunlight reflected by the Earth’s surface (albedo) is vital for the Earth's radiative system. While satellite instruments offer detailed spatial and temporal albedo maps, they only cover seven wavelength bands. We generate albedo maps that fully span the visible and near-infrared range using a machine learning algorithm. These maps reveal how the reflectivity of different land surfaces varies throughout the year. Our dataset enhances the understanding of the Earth's energy balance.
Soodabeh Namdari, Sanja Dmitrovic, Gao Chen, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Simon Kirschler, John B. Nowak, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Holger Vömel, Xubin Zeng, and Armin Sorooshian
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3024, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3024, 2024
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We conducted this study to assess the accuracy of airborne measurements of wind, temperature, and humidity, essential for understanding atmospheric processes. Using data from NASA's ACTIVATE campaign, we compared measurements from the TAMMS and DLH aboard a Falcon aircraft with dropsondes from a King Air, matching data points based on location and time using statistical methods. The study showed strong agreement, confirming the reliability of these methods for advancing climate models.
Rebecca Dischl, Daniel Sauer, Christiane Voigt, Theresa Harlaß, Felicitas Sakellariou, Raphael Märkl, Ulrich Schumann, Monika Scheibe, Stefan Kaufmann, Anke Roiger, Andreas Dörnbrack, Charles Renard, Maxime Gauthier, Peter Swann, Paul Madden, Darren Luff, Mark Johnson, Denise Ahrens, Reetu Sallinen, Tobias Schripp, Georg Eckel, Uwe Bauder, and Patrick Le Clercq
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11255–11273, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11255-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11255-2024, 2024
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In-flight measurements of aircraft emissions burning 100 % sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) show reduced particle number concentrations up to 41 % compared to conventional jet fuel. Particle emissions are dependent on engine power setting, flight altitude, and fuel composition. Engine models show a good correlation with measurement results. Future increased prevalence of SAF can positively influence the climate impact of aviation.
Cassidy Soloff, Taiwo Ajayi, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Francesca Gallo, Johnathan W. Hair, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10385–10408, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10385-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10385-2024, 2024
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Using aircraft measurements over the northwestern Atlantic between the US East Coast and Bermuda and trajectory modeling of continental outflow, we identify trace gas and particle properties that exhibit gradients with offshore distance and quantify these changes with high-resolution measurements of concentrations and particle chemistry, size, and scattering properties. This work furthers our understanding of the complex interactions between continental and marine environments.
Patrick Peter, Sigrun Matthes, Christine Frömming, Patrick Jöckel, Luca Bugliaro, Andreas Giez, Martina Krämer, and Volker Grewe
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2142, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2142, 2024
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Our study examines how temperature and humidity representations influence contrail (-cirrus) formation criteria. Using various model setups, we identified biases that lead to overestimation of contrail formation areas. By comparing simulations with in-flight and satellite observations, we confirmed that humidity threshold choices greatly affect contrail predictions. These findings can help develop strategies for climate-optimized flight routes, potentially reducing aviation's climate effect.
Audran Borella, Olivier Boucher, Keith P. Shine, Marc Stettler, Katsumasa Tanaka, Roger Teoh, and Nicolas Bellouin
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9401–9417, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9401-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9401-2024, 2024
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This work studies how to compare the climate impact of the CO2 emitted and contrails formed by a flight. This is applied to contrail avoidance strategies that would decrease climate impact of flights by changing the trajectory of aircraft to avoid persistent contrail formation, at the risk of increasing CO2 emissions. We find that different comparison methods lead to different quantification of the total climate impact of a flight but lead to similar decisions of whether to reroute an aircraft.
Shuaiqi Tang, Hailong Wang, Xiang-Yu Li, Jingyi Chen, Armin Sorooshian, Xubin Zeng, Ewan Crosbie, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Luke D. Ziemba, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10073–10092, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10073-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10073-2024, 2024
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We examined marine boundary layer clouds and their interactions with aerosols in the E3SM single-column model (SCM) for a case study. The SCM shows good agreement when simulating the clouds with high-resolution models. It reproduces the relationship between cloud droplet and aerosol particle number concentrations as produced in global models. However, the relationship between cloud liquid water and droplet number concentration is different, warranting further investigation.
Johanna Mayer, Bernhard Mayer, Luca Bugliaro, Ralf Meerkötter, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 5161–5185, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5161-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-5161-2024, 2024
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This study uses radiative transfer calculations to characterize the relation of two satellite channel combinations (namely infrared window brightness temperature differences – BTDs – of SEVIRI) to the thermodynamic cloud phase. A sensitivity analysis reveals the complex interplay of cloud parameters and their contribution to the observed phase dependence of BTDs. This knowledge helps to design optimal cloud-phase retrievals and to understand their potential and limitations.
Taiwo Ajayi, Yonghoon Choi, Ewan C. Crosbie, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, Johnathan W. Hair, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Chris A. Hostetler, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Cassidy Soloff, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 9197–9218, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9197-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-9197-2024, 2024
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This study uses airborne data to examine vertical profiles of trace gases, aerosol particles, and meteorological variables over a remote marine area (Bermuda). Results show distinct differences based on both air mass source region (North America, Ocean, Caribbean/North Africa) and altitude for a given air mass type. This work highlights the sensitivity of remote marine areas to long-range transport and the importance of considering the vertical dependence of trace gas and aerosol properties.
Manfred Wendisch, Susanne Crewell, André Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Benjamin Kirbus, Christof Lüpkes, Mario Mech, Steven J. Abel, Elisa F. Akansu, Felix Ament, Clémantyne Aubry, Sebastian Becker, Stephan Borrmann, Heiko Bozem, Marlen Brückner, Hans-Christian Clemen, Sandro Dahlke, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Julien Delanoë, Elena De La Torre Castro, Henning Dorff, Regis Dupuy, Oliver Eppers, Florian Ewald, Geet George, Irina V. Gorodetskaya, Sarah Grawe, Silke Groß, Jörg Hartmann, Silvia Henning, Lutz Hirsch, Evelyn Jäkel, Philipp Joppe, Olivier Jourdan, Zsofia Jurányi, Michail Karalis, Mona Kellermann, Marcus Klingebiel, Michael Lonardi, Johannes Lucke, Anna E. Luebke, Maximilian Maahn, Nina Maherndl, Marion Maturilli, Bernhard Mayer, Johanna Mayer, Stephan Mertes, Janosch Michaelis, Michel Michalkov, Guillaume Mioche, Manuel Moser, Hanno Müller, Roel Neggers, Davide Ori, Daria Paul, Fiona M. Paulus, Christian Pilz, Felix Pithan, Mira Pöhlker, Veronika Pörtge, Maximilian Ringel, Nils Risse, Gregory C. Roberts, Sophie Rosenburg, Johannes Röttenbacher, Janna Rückert, Michael Schäfer, Jonas Schaefer, Vera Schemann, Imke Schirmacher, Jörg Schmidt, Sebastian Schmidt, Johannes Schneider, Sabrina Schnitt, Anja Schwarz, Holger Siebert, Harald Sodemann, Tim Sperzel, Gunnar Spreen, Bjorn Stevens, Frank Stratmann, Gunilla Svensson, Christian Tatzelt, Thomas Tuch, Timo Vihma, Christiane Voigt, Lea Volkmer, Andreas Walbröl, Anna Weber, Birgit Wehner, Bruno Wetzel, Martin Wirth, and Tobias Zinner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 8865–8892, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-8865-2024, 2024
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The Arctic is warming faster than the rest of the globe. Warm-air intrusions (WAIs) into the Arctic may play an important role in explaining this phenomenon. Cold-air outbreaks (CAOs) out of the Arctic may link the Arctic climate changes to mid-latitude weather. In our article, we describe how to observe air mass transformations during CAOs and WAIs using three research aircraft instrumented with state-of-the-art remote-sensing and in situ measurement devices.
Johanna Mayer, Luca Bugliaro, Bernhard Mayer, Dennis Piontek, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 17, 4015–4039, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4015-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-17-4015-2024, 2024
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ProPS (PRObabilistic cloud top Phase retrieval for SEVIRI) is a method to detect clouds and their thermodynamic phase with a geostationary satellite, distinguishing between clear sky and ice, mixed-phase, supercooled and warm liquid clouds. It uses a Bayesian approach based on the lidar–radar product DARDAR. The method allows studying cloud phases, especially mixed-phase and supercooled clouds, rarely observed from geostationary satellites. This can be used for comparison with climate models.
Ziming Wang, Husi Letu, Huazhe Shang, and Luca Bugliaro
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7559–7574, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7559-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7559-2024, 2024
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The supercooled liquid fraction (SLF) in mixed-phase clouds is retrieved for the first time using passive geostationary satellite observations based on differences in liquid droplet and ice particle radiative properties. The retrieved results are comparable to global distributions observed by active instruments, and the feasibility of the retrieval method to analyze the observed trends of the SLF has been validated.
Philipp Joppe, Johannes Schneider, Katharina Kaiser, Horst Fischer, Peter Hoor, Daniel Kunkel, Hans-Christoph Lachnitt, Andreas Marsing, Lenard Röder, Hans Schlager, Laura Tomsche, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Zahn, and Stephan Borrmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 7499–7522, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7499-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-7499-2024, 2024
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From aircraft measurements in the upper troposphere/lower stratosphere, we find a correlation between the ozone and particulate sulfate in the lower stratosphere. The correlation exhibits some variability over the measurement period exceeding the background sulfate-to-ozone correlation. From our analysis, we conclude that gas-to-particle conversion of volcanic sulfur dioxide leads to observed enhanced sulfate aerosol mixing ratios.
Ewan Crosbie, Luke D. Ziemba, Michael A. Shook, Taylor Shingler, Johnathan W. Hair, Armin Sorooshian, Richard A. Ferrare, Brian Cairns, Yonghoon Choi, Joshua DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Chris Hostetler, Simon Kirschler, Richard H. Moore, David Painemal, Claire Robinson, Shane T. Seaman, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, and Edward Winstead
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6123–6152, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6123-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6123-2024, 2024
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Marine clouds are found to clump together in regions or lines, readily discernible from satellite images of the ocean. While clustering is also a feature of deep storm clouds, we focus on smaller cloud systems associated with fair weather and brief localized showers. Two aircraft sampled the region around these shallow systems: one incorporated measurements taken within, adjacent to, and below the clouds, while the other provided a survey from above using remote sensing techniques.
Roger Teoh, Zebediah Engberg, Ulrich Schumann, Christiane Voigt, Marc Shapiro, Susanne Rohs, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 6071–6093, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6071-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-6071-2024, 2024
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The radiative forcing (RF) due to aviation contrails is comparable to that caused by CO2. We estimate that global contrail net RF in 2019 was 62.1 mW m−2. This is ~1/2 the previous best estimate for 2018. Contrail RF varies regionally due to differences in conditions required for persistent contrails. COVID-19 reduced contrail RF by 54% in 2020 relative to 2019. Globally, 2 % of all flights account for 80 % of the annual contrail energy forcing, suggesting a opportunity to mitigate contrail RF.
Raphael Satoru Märkl, Christiane Voigt, Daniel Sauer, Rebecca Katharina Dischl, Stefan Kaufmann, Theresa Harlaß, Valerian Hahn, Anke Roiger, Cornelius Weiß-Rehm, Ulrike Burkhardt, Ulrich Schumann, Andreas Marsing, Monika Scheibe, Andreas Dörnbrack, Charles Renard, Maxime Gauthier, Peter Swann, Paul Madden, Darren Luff, Reetu Sallinen, Tobias Schripp, and Patrick Le Clercq
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 3813–3837, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3813-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-3813-2024, 2024
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In situ measurements of contrails from a large passenger aircraft burning 100 % sustainable aviation fuel (SAF) show a 56 % reduction in contrail ice crystal numbers compared to conventional Jet A-1. Results from a climate model initialized with the observations suggest a significant decrease in radiative forcing from contrails. Our study confirms that future increased use of low aromatic SAF can reduce the climate impact from aviation.
Robert Hanfland, Dominik Brunner, Christiane Voigt, Alina Fiehn, Anke Roiger, and Margit Pattantyús-Ábrahám
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2511–2534, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2511-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2511-2024, 2024
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To show that the three-dimensional dispersion of plumes simulated by the Atmospheric Radionuclide Transport Model within the planetary boundary layer agrees with real plumes, we identify the most important input parameters and analyse the turbulence properties of five different turbulence models in very unstable stratification conditions using their deviation from the well-mixed state. Simulations show that one model agrees slightly better in unstable stratification conditions.
Joel Ponsonby, Leon King, Benjamin J. Murray, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2045–2058, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2045-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2045-2024, 2024
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Aerosol emissions from aircraft engines contribute to the formation of contrails, which have a climate impact as important as that of aviation’s CO2 emissions. For the first time, we experimentally investigate the freezing behaviour of water droplets formed on jet lubrication oil aerosol. We show that they can activate to form water droplets and discuss their potential impact on contrail formation. Our study has implications for contrails produced by future aircraft engine and fuel technologies.
Roger Teoh, Zebediah Engberg, Marc Shapiro, Lynnette Dray, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 725–744, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-725-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-725-2024, 2024
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Emissions from aircraft contribute to climate change and degrade air quality. We describe an up-to-date 4D emissions inventory of global aviation from 2019 to 2021 based on actual flown trajectories. In 2019, 40.2 million flights collectively travelled 61 billion kilometres using 283 Tg of fuel. Long-haul flights were responsible for 43 % of CO2. The emissions inventory is made available for use in future studies to evaluate the negative externalities arising from global aviation.
Marcus Klingebiel, André Ehrlich, Elena Ruiz-Donoso, Nils Risse, Imke Schirmacher, Evelyn Jäkel, Michael Schäfer, Kevin Wolf, Mario Mech, Manuel Moser, Christiane Voigt, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 15289–15304, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15289-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-15289-2023, 2023
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In this study we explain how we use aircraft measurements from two Arctic research campaigns to identify cloud properties (like droplet size) over sea-ice and ice-free ocean. To make sure that our measurements make sense, we compare them with other observations. Our results show, e.g., larger cloud droplets in early summer than in spring. Moreover, the cloud droplets are also larger over ice-free ocean than compared to sea ice. In the future, our data can be used to improve climate models.
Elena De La Torre Castro, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Armin Afchine, Volker Grewe, Valerian Hahn, Simon Kirschler, Martina Krämer, Johannes Lucke, Nicole Spelten, Heini Wernli, Martin Zöger, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 13167–13189, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13167-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-13167-2023, 2023
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In this study, we show the differences in the microphysical properties between high-latitude (HL) cirrus and mid-latitude (ML) cirrus over the Arctic, North Atlantic, and central Europe during summer. The in situ measurements are combined with backward trajectories to investigate the influence of the region on cloud formation. We show that HL cirrus are characterized by a lower concentration of larger ice crystals when compared to ML cirrus.
Simon Kirschler, Christiane Voigt, Bruce E. Anderson, Gao Chen, Ewan C. Crosbie, Richard A. Ferrare, Valerian Hahn, Johnathan W. Hair, Stefan Kaufmann, Richard H. Moore, David Painemal, Claire E. Robinson, Kevin J. Sanchez, Amy J. Scarino, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Edward L. Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 10731–10750, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10731-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-10731-2023, 2023
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In this study we present an overview of liquid and mixed-phase clouds and precipitation in the marine boundary layer over the western North Atlantic Ocean. We compare microphysical properties of pure liquid clouds to mixed-phase clouds and show that the initiation of the ice phase in mixed-phase clouds promotes precipitation. The observational data presented in this study are well suited for investigating the processes that give rise to liquid and mixed-phase clouds, ice, and precipitation.
Armin Sorooshian, Mikhail D. Alexandrov, Adam D. Bell, Ryan Bennett, Grace Betito, Sharon P. Burton, Megan E. Buzanowicz, Brian Cairns, Eduard V. Chemyakin, Gao Chen, Yonghoon Choi, Brian L. Collister, Anthony L. Cook, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan C. Crosbie, Bastiaan van Diedenhoven, Joshua P. DiGangi, Glenn S. Diskin, Sanja Dmitrovic, Eva-Lou Edwards, Marta A. Fenn, Richard A. Ferrare, David van Gilst, Johnathan W. Hair, David B. Harper, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Chris A. Hostetler, Nathan Jester, Michael Jones, Simon Kirschler, Mary M. Kleb, John M. Kusterer, Sean Leavor, Joseph W. Lee, Hongyu Liu, Kayla McCauley, Richard H. Moore, Joseph Nied, Anthony Notari, John B. Nowak, David Painemal, Kasey E. Phillips, Claire E. Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Joseph S. Schlosser, Shane T. Seaman, Chellappan Seethala, Taylor J. Shingler, Michael A. Shook, Kenneth A. Sinclair, William L. Smith Jr., Douglas A. Spangenberg, Snorre A. Stamnes, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Holger Vömel, Andrzej P. Wasilewski, Hailong Wang, Edward L. Winstead, Kira Zeider, Xubin Zeng, Bo Zhang, Luke D. Ziemba, and Paquita Zuidema
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 15, 3419–3472, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3419-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-15-3419-2023, 2023
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The NASA Aerosol Cloud meTeorology Interactions oVer the western ATlantic Experiment (ACTIVATE) produced a unique dataset for research into aerosol–cloud–meteorology interactions. HU-25 Falcon and King Air aircraft conducted systematic and spatially coordinated flights over the northwest Atlantic Ocean. This paper describes the ACTIVATE flight strategy, instrument and complementary dataset products, data access and usage details, and data application notes.
Valerian Hahn, Ralf Meerkötter, Christiane Voigt, Sonja Gisinger, Daniel Sauer, Valéry Catoire, Volker Dreiling, Hugh Coe, Cyrille Flamant, Stefan Kaufmann, Jonas Kleine, Peter Knippertz, Manuel Moser, Philip Rosenberg, Hans Schlager, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, and Jonathan Taylor
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8515–8530, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8515-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8515-2023, 2023
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During the DACCIWA campaign in West Africa, we found a 35 % increase in the cloud droplet concentration that formed in a polluted compared with a less polluted environment and a decrease of 17 % in effective droplet diameter. Radiative transfer simulations, based on the measured cloud properties, reveal that these low-level polluted clouds radiate only 2.6 % more energy back to space, compared with a less polluted cloud. The corresponding additional decrease in temperature is rather small.
Silke Groß, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Qiang Li, Martin Wirth, Benedikt Urbanek, Martina Krämer, Ralf Weigel, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8369–8381, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8369-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8369-2023, 2023
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Aviation-emitted aerosol can have an impact on cirrus clouds. We present optical and microphysical properties of mid-latitude cirrus clouds which were formed under the influence of aviation-emitted aerosol or which were formed under rather pristine conditions. We find that cirrus clouds affected by aviation-emitted aerosol show larger values of the particle linear depolarization ratio, larger mean effective ice particle diameters and decreased ice particle number concentrations.
Manuel Moser, Christiane Voigt, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Valerian Hahn, Guillaume Mioche, Olivier Jourdan, Régis Dupuy, Christophe Gourbeyre, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Johannes Lucke, Yvonne Boose, Mario Mech, Stephan Borrmann, André Ehrlich, Andreas Herber, Christof Lüpkes, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 7257–7280, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7257-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-7257-2023, 2023
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This study provides a comprehensive microphysical and thermodynamic phase analysis of low-level clouds in the northern Fram Strait, above the sea ice and the open ocean, during spring and summer. Using airborne in situ cloud data, we show that the properties of Arctic low-level clouds vary significantly with seasonal meteorological situations and surface conditions. The observations presented in this study can help one to assess the role of clouds in the Arctic climate system.
Dominik Brunner, Gerrit Kuhlmann, Stephan Henne, Erik Koene, Bastian Kern, Sebastian Wolff, Christiane Voigt, Patrick Jöckel, Christoph Kiemle, Anke Roiger, Alina Fiehn, Sven Krautwurst, Konstantin Gerilowski, Heinrich Bovensmann, Jakob Borchardt, Michal Galkowski, Christoph Gerbig, Julia Marshall, Andrzej Klonecki, Pascal Prunet, Robert Hanfland, Margit Pattantyús-Ábrahám, Andrzej Wyszogrodzki, and Andreas Fix
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2699–2728, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2699-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2699-2023, 2023
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We evaluated six atmospheric transport models for their capability to simulate the CO2 plumes from two of the largest power plants in Europe by comparing the models against aircraft observations collected during the CoMet (Carbon Dioxide and Methane Mission) campaign in 2018. The study analyzed how realistically such plumes can be simulated at different model resolutions and how well the planned European satellite mission CO2M will be able to quantify emissions from power plants.
Yun Li, Christoph Mahnke, Susanne Rohs, Ulrich Bundke, Nicole Spelten, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Silke Groß, Christiane Voigt, Ulrich Schumann, Andreas Petzold, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2251–2271, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2251-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2251-2023, 2023
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The radiative effect of aviation-induced cirrus is closely related to ambient conditions and its microphysical properties. Our study investigated the occurrence of contrail and natural cirrus measured above central Europe in spring 2014. It finds that contrail cirrus appears frequently in the pressure range 200 to 245 hPa and occurs more often in slightly ice-subsaturated environments than expected. Avoiding slightly ice-subsaturated regions by aviation might help mitigate contrail cirrus.
Ziming Wang, Luca Bugliaro, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Romy Heller, Ulrike Burkhardt, Helmut Ziereis, Georgios Dekoutsidis, Martin Wirth, Silke Groß, Simon Kirschler, Stefan Kaufmann, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1941–1961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1941-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1941-2023, 2023
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Differences in the microphysical properties of contrail cirrus and natural cirrus in a contrail outbreak situation during the ML-CIRRUS campaign over the North Atlantic flight corridor can be observed from in situ measurements. The cirrus radiative effect in the area of the outbreak, derived from satellite observation-based radiative transfer modeling, is warming in the early morning and cooling during the day.
Andreas Marsing, Ralf Meerkötter, Romy Heller, Stefan Kaufmann, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 587–609, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-587-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-587-2023, 2023
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We employ highly resolved aircraft measurements of profiles of the ice water content (IWC) in Arctic cirrus clouds in winter and spring, when solar irradiation is low. Using radiation transfer calculations, we assess the cloud radiative effect over different surfaces like snow or ocean. The variability in the IWC of the clouds affects their overall radiative effect and drives internal processes. This helps understand the role of cirrus in a rapidly changing Arctic environment.
Johannes Lucke, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Romy Heller, Valerian Hahn, Matthew Hamman, Wolfgang Breitfuss, Venkateshwar Reddy Bora, Manuel Moser, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 15, 7375–7394, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7375-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-15-7375-2022, 2022
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Flight testing in icing conditions requires instruments that are able to accurately measure the liquid water content of supercooled large droplets (SLDs). This work finds that the 12 mm cone of the Nevzorov hot-wire probe has excellent collection properties for SLDs. We also derive a correction to compensate for the low collision efficiency of small droplets with the cone. The results provide a procedure to evaluate LWC measurements of the 12 mm cone during wind tunnel and airborne experiments.
Laura Tomsche, Andreas Marsing, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Johannes Lucke, Stefan Kaufmann, Katharina Kaiser, Johannes Schneider, Monika Scheibe, Hans Schlager, Lenard Röder, Horst Fischer, Florian Obersteiner, Andreas Zahn, Martin Zöger, Jos Lelieveld, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 15135–15151, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15135-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-15135-2022, 2022
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The detection of sulfur compounds in the upper troposphere (UT) and lower stratosphere (LS) is a challenge. In-flight measurements of SO2 and sulfate aerosol were performed during the BLUESKY mission in spring 2020 under exceptional atmospheric conditions. Reduced sinks in the dry UTLS and lower but still significant air traffic influenced the enhanced SO2 in the UT, and aged volcanic plumes enhanced the LS sulfate aerosol impacting the atmospheric radiation budget and global climate.
Hossein Dadashazar, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan Crosbie, Sanja Dmitrovic, Simon Kirschler, Kayla McCauley, Richard Moore, Claire Robinson, Joseph S. Schlosser, Michael Shook, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Edward Winstead, Luke Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 13897–13913, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13897-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-13897-2022, 2022
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Multi-season airborne data over the northwestern Atlantic show that organic mass fraction and the relative amount of oxygenated organics within that fraction are enhanced in droplet residual particles as compared to particles below and above cloud. In-cloud aqueous processing is shown to be a potential driver of this compositional shift in cloud. This implies that aerosol–cloud interactions in the region reduce aerosol hygroscopicity due to the jump in the organic : sulfate ratio in cloud.
Roger Teoh, Ulrich Schumann, Edward Gryspeerdt, Marc Shapiro, Jarlath Molloy, George Koudis, Christiane Voigt, and Marc E. J. Stettler
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10919–10935, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10919-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10919-2022, 2022
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Aircraft condensation trails (contrails) contribute to over half of the climate forcing attributable to aviation. This study uses historical air traffic and weather data to simulate contrails in the North Atlantic over 5 years, from 2016 to 2021. We found large intra- and inter-year variability in contrail radiative forcing and observed a 66 % reduction due to COVID-19. Most warming contrails predominantly result from night-time flights in winter.
Simon F. Reifenberg, Anna Martin, Matthias Kohl, Sara Bacer, Zaneta Hamryszczak, Ivan Tadic, Lenard Röder, Daniel J. Crowley, Horst Fischer, Katharina Kaiser, Johannes Schneider, Raphael Dörich, John N. Crowley, Laura Tomsche, Andreas Marsing, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Zahn, Christopher Pöhlker, Bruna A. Holanda, Ovid Krüger, Ulrich Pöschl, Mira Pöhlker, Patrick Jöckel, Marcel Dorf, Ulrich Schumann, Jonathan Williams, Birger Bohn, Joachim Curtius, Hardwig Harder, Hans Schlager, Jos Lelieveld, and Andrea Pozzer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10901–10917, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10901-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10901-2022, 2022
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In this work we use a combination of observational data from an aircraft campaign and model results to investigate the effect of the European lockdown due to COVID-19 in spring 2020. Using model results, we show that the largest relative changes to the atmospheric composition caused by the reduced emissions are located in the upper troposphere around aircraft cruise altitude, while the largest absolute changes are present at the surface.
Ovid O. Krüger, Bruna A. Holanda, Sourangsu Chowdhury, Andrea Pozzer, David Walter, Christopher Pöhlker, Maria Dolores Andrés Hernández, John P. Burrows, Christiane Voigt, Jos Lelieveld, Johannes Quaas, Ulrich Pöschl, and Mira L. Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8683–8699, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8683-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8683-2022, 2022
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The abrupt reduction in human activities during the first COVID-19 lockdown created unprecedented atmospheric conditions. We took the opportunity to quantify changes in black carbon (BC) as a major anthropogenic air pollutant. Therefore, we measured BC on board a research aircraft over Europe during the lockdown and compared the results to measurements from 2017. With model simulations we account for different weather conditions and find a lockdown-related decrease in BC of 41 %.
Simon Kirschler, Christiane Voigt, Bruce Anderson, Ramon Campos Braga, Gao Chen, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan Crosbie, Hossein Dadashazar, Richard A. Ferrare, Valerian Hahn, Johannes Hendricks, Stefan Kaufmann, Richard Moore, Mira L. Pöhlker, Claire Robinson, Amy J. Scarino, Dominik Schollmayer, Michael A. Shook, K. Lee Thornhill, Edward Winstead, Luke D. Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 8299–8319, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8299-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-8299-2022, 2022
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In this study we show that the vertical velocity dominantly impacts the cloud droplet number concentration (NC) of low-level clouds over the western North Atlantic in the winter and summer season, while the cloud condensation nuclei concentration, aerosol size distribution and chemical composition impact NC within a season. The observational data presented in this study can evaluate and improve the representation of aerosol–cloud interactions for a wide range of conditions.
M. Dolores Andrés Hernández, Andreas Hilboll, Helmut Ziereis, Eric Förster, Ovid O. Krüger, Katharina Kaiser, Johannes Schneider, Francesca Barnaba, Mihalis Vrekoussis, Jörg Schmidt, Heidi Huntrieser, Anne-Marlene Blechschmidt, Midhun George, Vladyslav Nenakhov, Theresa Harlass, Bruna A. Holanda, Jennifer Wolf, Lisa Eirenschmalz, Marc Krebsbach, Mira L. Pöhlker, Anna B. Kalisz Hedegaard, Linlu Mei, Klaus Pfeilsticker, Yangzhuoran Liu, Ralf Koppmann, Hans Schlager, Birger Bohn, Ulrich Schumann, Andreas Richter, Benjamin Schreiner, Daniel Sauer, Robert Baumann, Mariano Mertens, Patrick Jöckel, Markus Kilian, Greta Stratmann, Christopher Pöhlker, Monica Campanelli, Marco Pandolfi, Michael Sicard, José L. Gómez-Amo, Manuel Pujadas, Katja Bigge, Flora Kluge, Anja Schwarz, Nikos Daskalakis, David Walter, Andreas Zahn, Ulrich Pöschl, Harald Bönisch, Stephan Borrmann, Ulrich Platt, and John P. Burrows
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 5877–5924, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5877-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-5877-2022, 2022
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EMeRGe provides a unique set of in situ and remote sensing airborne measurements of trace gases and aerosol particles along selected flight routes in the lower troposphere over Europe. The interpretation uses also complementary collocated ground-based and satellite measurements. The collected data help to improve the current understanding of the complex spatial distribution of trace gases and aerosol particles resulting from mixing, transport, and transformation of pollution plumes over Europe.
Mireia Papke Chica, Valerian Hahn, Tiziana Braeuer, Elena de la Torre Castro, Florian Ewald, Mathias Gergely, Simon Kirschler, Luca Bugliaro Goggia, Stefanie Knobloch, Martina Kraemer, Johannes Lucke, Johanna Mayer, Raphael Maerkl, Manuel Moser, Laura Tomsche, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martin Zoeger, Christian von Savigny, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2022-255, 2022
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The mixed-phase temperature regime in convective clouds challenges our understanding of microphysical and radiative cloud properties. We provide a rare and unique dataset of aircraft in situ measurements in a strong mid-latitude convective system. We find that mechanisms initiating ice nucleation and growth strongly depend on temperature, relative humidity, and vertical velocity and variate within the measured system, resulting in altitude dependent changes of the cloud liquid and ice fraction.
Luca Bugliaro, Dennis Piontek, Stephan Kox, Marius Schmidl, Bernhard Mayer, Richard Müller, Margarita Vázquez-Navarro, Daniel M. Peters, Roy G. Grainger, Josef Gasteiger, and Jayanta Kar
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 22, 1029–1054, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-1029-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-22-1029-2022, 2022
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The monitoring of ash dispersion in the atmosphere is an important task for satellite remote sensing since ash represents a threat to air traffic. We present an AI-based method that retrieves the spatial extension and properties of volcanic ash clouds with high temporal resolution during day and night by means of geostationary satellite measurements. This algorithm, trained on realistic observations simulated with a radiative transfer model, runs operationally at the German Weather Service.
Helmut Ziereis, Peter Hoor, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Andreas Zahn, Greta Stratmann, Paul Stock, Michael Lichtenstern, Jens Krause, Vera Bense, Armin Afchine, Christian Rolf, Wolfgang Woiwode, Marleen Braun, Jörn Ungermann, Andreas Marsing, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Engel, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3631–3654, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3631-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3631-2022, 2022
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Airborne observations were conducted in the lowermost Arctic stratosphere during the winter of 2015/2016. The observed distribution of reactive nitrogen shows clear indications of nitrification in mid-winter and denitrification in late winter. This was caused by the formation of polar stratospheric cloud particles, which were observed during several flights. The sedimentation and evaporation of these particles and the descent of air masses cause a redistribution of reactive nitrogen.
Adrien Deroubaix, Laurent Menut, Cyrille Flamant, Peter Knippertz, Andreas H. Fink, Anneke Batenburg, Joel Brito, Cyrielle Denjean, Cheikh Dione, Régis Dupuy, Valerian Hahn, Norbert Kalthoff, Fabienne Lohou, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Guillaume Siour, Paolo Tuccella, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3251–3273, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3251-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3251-2022, 2022
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During the summer monsoon in West Africa, pollutants emitted in urbanized areas modify cloud cover and precipitation patterns. We analyze these patterns with the WRF-CHIMERE model, integrating the effects of aerosols on meteorology, based on the numerous observations provided by the Dynamics-Aerosol-Climate-Interactions campaign. This study adds evidence to recent findings that increased pollution levels in West Africa delay the breakup time of low-level clouds and reduce precipitation.
Matthieu Plu, Guillaume Bigeard, Bojan Sič, Emanuele Emili, Luca Bugliaro, Laaziz El Amraoui, Jonathan Guth, Beatrice Josse, Lucia Mona, and Dennis Piontek
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3731–3747, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3731-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3731-2021, 2021
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Volcanic eruptions that spread out ash over large areas, like Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, may have huge economic consequences due to flight cancellations. In this article, we demonstrate the benefits of source term improvement and of data assimilation for quantifying volcanic ash concentrations. The work, which was supported by the EUNADICS-AV project, is the first one, to our knowledge, that demonstrates the benefit of the assimilation of ground-based lidar data over Europe during an eruption.
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.
Silke Trömel, Clemens Simmer, Ulrich Blahak, Armin Blanke, Sabine Doktorowski, Florian Ewald, Michael Frech, Mathias Gergely, Martin Hagen, Tijana Janjic, Heike Kalesse-Los, Stefan Kneifel, Christoph Knote, Jana Mendrok, Manuel Moser, Gregor Köcher, Kai Mühlbauer, Alexander Myagkov, Velibor Pejcic, Patric Seifert, Prabhakar Shrestha, Audrey Teisseire, Leonie von Terzi, Eleni Tetoni, Teresa Vogl, Christiane Voigt, Yuefei Zeng, Tobias Zinner, and Johannes Quaas
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 17291–17314, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-17291-2021, 2021
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The article introduces the ACP readership to ongoing research in Germany on cloud- and precipitation-related process information inherent in polarimetric radar measurements, outlines pathways to inform atmospheric models with radar-based information, and points to remaining challenges towards an improved fusion of radar polarimetry and atmospheric modelling.
Tiziana Bräuer, Christiane Voigt, Daniel Sauer, Stefan Kaufmann, Valerian Hahn, Monika Scheibe, Hans Schlager, Felix Huber, Patrick Le Clercq, Richard H. Moore, and Bruce E. Anderson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16817–16826, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16817-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16817-2021, 2021
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Over half of aviation climate impact is caused by contrails. Biofuels can reduce the ice crystal numbers in contrails and mitigate the climate impact. The experiment ECLIF II/NDMAX in 2018 assessed the effects of biofuels on contrails and aviation emissions. The NASA DC-8 aircraft performed measurements inside the contrail of the DLR A320. One reference fuel and two blends of the biofuel HEFA and kerosene are analysed. We find a max reduction of contrail ice numbers through biofuel use of 40 %.
Hugues Brenot, Nicolas Theys, Lieven Clarisse, Jeroen van Gent, Daniel R. Hurtmans, Sophie Vandenbussche, Nikolaos Papagiannopoulos, Lucia Mona, Timo Virtanen, Andreas Uppstu, Mikhail Sofiev, Luca Bugliaro, Margarita Vázquez-Navarro, Pascal Hedelt, Michelle Maree Parks, Sara Barsotti, Mauro Coltelli, William Moreland, Simona Scollo, Giuseppe Salerno, Delia Arnold-Arias, Marcus Hirtl, Tuomas Peltonen, Juhani Lahtinen, Klaus Sievers, Florian Lipok, Rolf Rüfenacht, Alexander Haefele, Maxime Hervo, Saskia Wagenaar, Wim Som de Cerff, Jos de Laat, Arnoud Apituley, Piet Stammes, Quentin Laffineur, Andy Delcloo, Robertson Lennart, Carl-Herbert Rokitansky, Arturo Vargas, Markus Kerschbaum, Christian Resch, Raimund Zopp, Matthieu Plu, Vincent-Henri Peuch, Michel Van Roozendael, and Gerhard Wotawa
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 3367–3405, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3367-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-3367-2021, 2021
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The purpose of the EUNADICS-AV (European Natural Airborne Disaster Information and Coordination System for Aviation) prototype early warning system (EWS) is to develop the combined use of harmonised data products from satellite, ground-based and in situ instruments to produce alerts of airborne hazards (volcanic, dust, smoke and radionuclide clouds), satisfying the requirement of aviation air traffic management (ATM) stakeholders (https://cordis.europa.eu/project/id/723986).
Hossein Dadashazar, Majid Alipanah, Miguel Ricardo A. Hilario, Ewan Crosbie, Simon Kirschler, Hongyu Liu, Richard H. Moore, Andrew J. Peters, Amy Jo Scarino, Michael Shook, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Hailong Wang, Edward Winstead, Bo Zhang, Luke Ziemba, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 16121–16141, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16121-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-16121-2021, 2021
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This study investigates precipitation impacts on long-range transport of North American outflow over the western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO). Results demonstrate that precipitation scavenging plays a significant role in modifying surface aerosol concentrations over the WNAO, especially in winter and spring due to large-scale scavenging processes. This study highlights how precipitation impacts surface aerosol properties with relevance for other marine regions vulnerable to continental outflow.
Matthieu Plu, Barbara Scherllin-Pirscher, Delia Arnold Arias, Rocio Baro, Guillaume Bigeard, Luca Bugliaro, Ana Carvalho, Laaziz El Amraoui, Kurt Eschbacher, Marcus Hirtl, Christian Maurer, Marie D. Mulder, Dennis Piontek, Lennart Robertson, Carl-Herbert Rokitansky, Fritz Zobl, and Raimund Zopp
Nat. Hazards Earth Syst. Sci., 21, 2973–2992, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2973-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/nhess-21-2973-2021, 2021
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Past volcanic eruptions that spread out ash over large areas, like Eyjafjallajökull in 2010, forced the cancellation of thousands of flights and had huge economic consequences.
In this article, an international team in the H2020 EU-funded EUNADICS-AV project has designed a probabilistic model approach to quantify ash concentrations. This approach is evaluated against measurements, and its potential use to mitigate the impact of future large-scale eruptions is discussed.
Ramon Campos Braga, Daniel Rosenfeld, Ovid O. Krüger, Barbara Ervens, Bruna A. Holanda, Manfred Wendisch, Trismono Krisna, Ulrich Pöschl, Meinrat O. Andreae, Christiane Voigt, and Mira L. Pöhlker
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 14079–14088, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14079-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-14079-2021, 2021
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Quantifying the precipitation within clouds is crucial for our understanding of the Earth's hydrological cycle. Using in situ measurements of cloud and rain properties over the Amazon Basin and Atlantic Ocean, we show here a linear relationship between the effective radius (re) and precipitation water content near the tops of convective clouds for different pollution states and temperature levels. Our results emphasize the role of re to determine both initiation and amount of precipitation.
Hossein Dadashazar, David Painemal, Majid Alipanah, Michael Brunke, Seethala Chellappan, Andrea F. Corral, Ewan Crosbie, Simon Kirschler, Hongyu Liu, Richard H. Moore, Claire Robinson, Amy Jo Scarino, Michael Shook, Kenneth Sinclair, K. Lee Thornhill, Christiane Voigt, Hailong Wang, Edward Winstead, Xubin Zeng, Luke Ziemba, Paquita Zuidema, and Armin Sorooshian
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 10499–10526, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10499-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-10499-2021, 2021
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This study investigates the seasonal cycle of cloud drop number concentration (Nd) over the western North Atlantic Ocean (WNAO) using multiple datasets. Reasons for the puzzling discrepancy between the seasonal cycles of Nd and aerosol concentration were identified. Results indicate that Nd is highest in winter (when aerosol proxy values are often lowest) due to conditions both linked to cold-air outbreaks and that promote greater droplet activation.
Maxi Boettcher, Andreas Schäfler, Michael Sprenger, Harald Sodemann, Stefan Kaufmann, Christiane Voigt, Hans Schlager, Donato Summa, Paolo Di Girolamo, Daniele Nerini, Urs Germann, and Heini Wernli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 5477–5498, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5477-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-5477-2021, 2021
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Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are important airstreams in extratropical cyclones, often leading to the formation of intense precipitation. We present a case study that involves aircraft, lidar and radar observations of water and clouds in a WCB ascending from western Europe across the Alps towards the Baltic Sea during the field campaigns HyMeX and T-NAWDEX-Falcon in October 2012. A probabilistic trajectory measure and an airborne tracer experiment were used to confirm the long pathway of the WCB.
Harald Rybka, Ulrike Burkhardt, Martin Köhler, Ioanna Arka, Luca Bugliaro, Ulrich Görsdorf, Ákos Horváth, Catrin I. Meyer, Jens Reichardt, Axel Seifert, and Johan Strandgren
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 21, 4285–4318, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4285-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-4285-2021, 2021
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Estimating the impact of convection on the upper-tropospheric water budget remains a problem for models employing resolutions of several kilometers or more. A sub-kilometer high-resolution model is used to study summertime convection. The results suggest mostly close agreement with ground- and satellite-based observational data while slightly overestimating total frozen water path and anvil lifetime. The simulations are well suited to supplying information for parameterization development.
Inken Knop, Stephan E. Bansmer, Valerian Hahn, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 14, 1761–1781, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1761-2021, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-14-1761-2021, 2021
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Knowledge on droplet size and concentration is essential for several applications of atomizers. After having developed a new spray system for our icing wind tunnel, we did intercomparison tests of different droplet measurement techniques including two commercial probes. The probes proved the good repeatability of the spray conditions and showed good overall agreement in measuring size and concentration. Furthermore, we could identify limitations and error sources of the measuring techniques.
Mattia Righi, Johannes Hendricks, Ulrike Lohmann, Christof Gerhard Beer, Valerian Hahn, Bernd Heinold, Romy Heller, Martina Krämer, Michael Ponater, Christian Rolf, Ina Tegen, and Christiane Voigt
Geosci. Model Dev., 13, 1635–1661, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1635-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-13-1635-2020, 2020
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A new cloud microphysical scheme is implemented in the global EMAC-MADE3 aerosol model and evaluated. The new scheme features a detailed parameterization for aerosol-driven ice formation in cirrus clouds, accounting for the competition between homogeneous and heterogeneous ice formation processes. The comparison against satellite data and in situ measurements shows that the model performance is in line with similar global coupled models featuring ice cloud parameterizations.
Pascal Polonik, Christoph Knote, Tobias Zinner, Florian Ewald, Tobias Kölling, Bernhard Mayer, Meinrat O. Andreae, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Thomas Klimach, Christoph Mahnke, Sergej Molleker, Christopher Pöhlker, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Daniel Rosenfeld, Christiane Voigt, Ralf Weigel, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 1591–1605, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1591-2020, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-1591-2020, 2020
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A realistic representation of cloud–aerosol interactions is central to accurate climate projections. Here we combine observations collected during the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign with chemistry-transport simulations to evaluate the model’s ability to represent the indirect effects of biomass burning aerosol on cloud microphysics. We find an upper limit for the model sensitivity on cloud condensation nuclei concentrations well below the levels reached during the burning season in the Amazon Basin.
Andreas Marsing, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Stefan Kaufmann, Romy Heller, Andreas Engel, Peter Hoor, Jens Krause, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 10757–10772, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10757-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-10757-2019, 2019
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We study the partitioning of inorganic chlorine into active (ozone-depleting) and reservoir species in the lowermost stratosphere of the Arctic polar vortex, using novel in situ aircraft measurements in winter 2015/2016. We observe a change in recovery pathways of the reservoirs HCl and ClONO2 with increasing potential temperature. A comparison with the CLaMS model relates the observations to the vortex-wide evolution and confirms unresolved discrepancies in the mid-winter HCl distribution.
Jonathan W. Taylor, Sophie L. Haslett, Keith Bower, Michael Flynn, Ian Crawford, James Dorsey, Tom Choularton, Paul J. Connolly, Valerian Hahn, Christiane Voigt, Daniel Sauer, Régis Dupuy, Joel Brito, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Thierry Bourriane, Cyrielle Denjean, Phil Rosenberg, Cyrille Flamant, James D. Lee, Adam R. Vaughan, Peter G. Hill, Barbara Brooks, Valéry Catoire, Peter Knippertz, and Hugh Coe
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 19, 8503–8522, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8503-2019, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-19-8503-2019, 2019
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Low-level clouds cover a wide area of southern West Africa (SWA) and play an important role in the region's climate, reflecting sunlight away from the surface. We performed aircraft measurements of aerosols and clouds over SWA during the 2016 summer monsoon and found pollution, and polluted clouds, across the whole region. Smoke from biomass burning in Central Africa is transported to West Africa, causing a polluted background which limits the effect of local pollution on cloud properties.
Michael Weger, Bernd Heinold, Christa Engler, Ulrich Schumann, Axel Seifert, Romy Fößig, Christiane Voigt, Holger Baars, Ulrich Blahak, Stephan Borrmann, Corinna Hoose, Stefan Kaufmann, Martina Krämer, Patric Seifert, Fabian Senf, Johannes Schneider, and Ina Tegen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 17545–17572, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17545-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-17545-2018, 2018
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The impact of desert dust on cloud formation is investigated for a major Saharan dust event over Europe by interactive regional dust modeling. Dust particles are very efficient ice-nucleating particles promoting the formation of ice crystals in clouds. The simulations show that the observed extensive cirrus development was likely related to the above-average dust load. The interactive dust–cloud feedback in the model significantly improves the agreement with aircraft and satellite observations.
Stefan Kaufmann, Christiane Voigt, Romy Heller, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, Martin Zöger, Andreas Giez, Bernhard Buchholz, Volker Ebert, Troy Thornberry, and Ulrich Schumann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 16729–16745, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-16729-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-16729-2018, 2018
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We present an intercomparison of the airborne water vapor measurements during the ML-CIRRUS mission. Although the agreement of the hygrometers significantly improved compared to studies from recent decades, systematic differences remain under specific meteorological conditions. We compare the measurements to model data, where we observe a model wet bias in the lower stratosphere close to the tropopause, likely caused by a blurred humidity gradient in the model tropopause.
Christiane Voigt, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martin Wirth, Silke M. Groß, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Robert Baumann, Benedikt Ehard, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, Wolfgang Woiwode, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 15623–15641, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15623-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-15623-2018, 2018
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The 2015–2016 stratospheric winter was the coldest in the 36-year climatological data record. The extreme conditions promoted the formation of persistent Arctic polar stratospheric ice clouds. An extended ice PSC detected by airborne lidar in January 2016 shows a second mode with higher particle depolarization ratios. Back-trajectories from the high-depol ice matched to CALIOP PSC curtains provide evidence for ice nucleation on NAT. The novel data consolidate our understanding of PSC formation.
Christiane Schulz, Johannes Schneider, Bruna Amorim Holanda, Oliver Appel, Anja Costa, Suzane S. de Sá, Volker Dreiling, Daniel Fütterer, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Thomas Klimach, Christoph Knote, Martina Krämer, Scot T. Martin, Stephan Mertes, Mira L. Pöhlker, Daniel Sauer, Christiane Voigt, Adrian Walser, Bernadett Weinzierl, Helmut Ziereis, Martin Zöger, Meinrat O. Andreae, Paulo Artaxo, Luiz A. T. Machado, Ulrich Pöschl, Manfred Wendisch, and Stephan Borrmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 14979–15001, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14979-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-14979-2018, 2018
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Aerosol chemical composition measurements in the tropical upper troposphere over the Amazon region show that 78 % of the aerosol in the upper troposphere consists of organic matter. Up to 20 % of the organic aerosol can be attributed to isoprene epoxydiol secondary organic aerosol (IEPOX-SOA). Furthermore, organic nitrates were identified, suggesting a connection to the IEPOX-SOA formation.
Sören Johansson, Wolfgang Woiwode, Michael Höpfner, Felix Friedl-Vallon, Anne Kleinert, Erik Kretschmer, Thomas Latzko, Johannes Orphal, Peter Preusse, Jörn Ungermann, Michelle L. Santee, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Andreas Marsing, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Giez, Martina Krämer, Christian Rolf, Andreas Zahn, Andreas Engel, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4737–4756, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4737-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4737-2018, 2018
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We present two-dimensional cross sections of temperature, HNO3, O3, ClONO2, H2O and CFC-12 from measurements of the GLORIA infrared limb imager during the POLSTRACC/GW-LCYCLE/SALSA aircraft campaigns in the Arctic winter 2015/2016. GLORIA sounded the atmosphere between 5 and 14 km with vertical resolutions of 0.4–1 km. Estimated errors are in the range of 1–2 K (temperature) and 10 %–20 % (trace gases). Comparisons to in situ instruments onboard the aircraft and to Aura/MLS are shown.
Aurélien Chauvigné, Olivier Jourdan, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Christophe Gourbeyre, Jean François Gayet, Christiane Voigt, Hans Schlager, Stefan Kaufmann, Stephan Borrmann, Sergej Molleker, Andreas Minikin, Tina Jurkat, and Ulrich Schumann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 9803–9822, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9803-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-9803-2018, 2018
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This paper demonstrates a new form of statistical analysis of contrail to cirrus evolution. The authors show well-separated analyses of the different stages of the contrail's evolution, which allows us to study their optical, microphysical, and chemical properties. These results could be used to develop representative parameterizations of the scattering and geometrical properties of the ice crystals’ shapes and sizes, observed in the visible wavelength range.
Armin Afchine, Christian Rolf, Anja Costa, Nicole Spelten, Martin Riese, Bernhard Buchholz, Volker Ebert, Romy Heller, Stefan Kaufmann, Andreas Minikin, Christiane Voigt, Martin Zöger, Jessica Smith, Paul Lawson, Alexey Lykov, Sergey Khaykin, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 4015–4031, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4015-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-4015-2018, 2018
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The ice water content (IWC) of cirrus clouds is an essential parameter that determines their radiative properties and is thus important for climate simulations. Experimental investigations of IWCs measured on board research aircraft reveal that their accuracy is influenced by the sampling position. IWCs detected at the aircraft roof deviate significantly from wing, side or bottom IWCs. The reasons are deflections of the gas streamlines and ice particle trajectories behind the aircraft cockpit.
Stephan E. Bansmer, Arne Baumert, Stephan Sattler, Inken Knop, Delphine Leroy, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Christiane Voigt, Hugo Pervier, and Biagio Esposito
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 11, 3221–3249, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3221-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-11-3221-2018, 2018
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Snow, frost formation and ice cubes in our drinks are part of our daily life. But what about our technical innovations like aviation, electrical power transmission and wind-energy production, can they cope with icing? Icing Wind Tunnels are an ideal laboratory environment to answer that question. In this paper, we show how the icing wind tunnel in Braunschweig (Germany) was built and how we can use it for engineering and climate research.
Klaus-Dirk Gottschaldt, Hans Schlager, Robert Baumann, Duy Sinh Cai, Veronika Eyring, Phoebe Graf, Volker Grewe, Patrick Jöckel, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Zahn, and Helmut Ziereis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 5655–5675, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5655-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-5655-2018, 2018
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This study places aircraft trace gas measurements from within the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone into the context of regional, intra- and interannual variability. We find that the processes reflected in the measurements are present throughout multiple simulated monsoon seasons. Dynamical instabilities, photochemical ozone production, lightning and entrainments from the lower troposphere and from the tropopause region determine the distinct composition of the anticyclone and its outflow.
Trismono C. Krisna, Manfred Wendisch, André Ehrlich, Evelyn Jäkel, Frank Werner, Ralf Weigel, Stephan Borrmann, Christoph Mahnke, Ulrich Pöschl, Meinrat O. Andreae, Christiane Voigt, and Luiz A. T. Machado
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 4439–4462, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4439-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-4439-2018, 2018
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The optical thickness and particle effective radius of a cirrus above liquid water clouds and a DCC topped by an anvil cirrus are retrieved based on SMART and MODIS radiance measurements. For the cirrus, retrieved particle effective radius are validated with corresponding in situ data using a vertical weighting method. This approach allows to assess the measurements, retrieval algorithms, and derived cloud products.
Meinrat O. Andreae, Armin Afchine, Rachel Albrecht, Bruna Amorim Holanda, Paulo Artaxo, Henrique M. J. Barbosa, Stephan Borrmann, Micael A. Cecchini, Anja Costa, Maximilian Dollner, Daniel Fütterer, Emma Järvinen, Tina Jurkat, Thomas Klimach, Tobias Konemann, Christoph Knote, Martina Krämer, Trismono Krisna, Luiz A. T. Machado, Stephan Mertes, Andreas Minikin, Christopher Pöhlker, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Daniel Rosenfeld, Daniel Sauer, Hans Schlager, Martin Schnaiter, Johannes Schneider, Christiane Schulz, Antonio Spanu, Vinicius B. Sperling, Christiane Voigt, Adrian Walser, Jian Wang, Bernadett Weinzierl, Manfred Wendisch, and Helmut Ziereis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 18, 921–961, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-921-2018, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-18-921-2018, 2018
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We made airborne measurements of aerosol particle concentrations and properties over the Amazon Basin. We found extremely high concentrations of very small particles in the region between 8 and 14 km altitude all across the basin, which had been recently formed by gas-to-particle conversion at these altitudes. This makes the upper troposphere a very important source region of atmospheric particles with significant implications for the Earth's climate system.
Romy Heller, Christiane Voigt, Stuart Beaton, Andreas Dörnbrack, Andreas Giez, Stefan Kaufmann, Christian Mallaun, Hans Schlager, Johannes Wagner, Kate Young, and Markus Rapp
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14853–14869, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14853-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14853-2017, 2017
Ramon Campos Braga, Daniel Rosenfeld, Ralf Weigel, Tina Jurkat, Meinrat O. Andreae, Manfred Wendisch, Ulrich Pöschl, Christiane Voigt, Christoph Mahnke, Stephan Borrmann, Rachel I. Albrecht, Sergej Molleker, Daniel A. Vila, Luiz A. T. Machado, and Lucas Grulich
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 14433–14456, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14433-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-14433-2017, 2017
Ulrich Schumann and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 13833–13848, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13833-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-13833-2017, 2017
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It is generally assumed that a positive radiative forcing of the atmosphere implies a warming of the Earth surface. This assumption is valid for well-mixed greenhouse gases but is not guaranteed for disturbances which cause a vertically variable radiative heating rate profile with warming in the upper troposphere and cooling near the surface. This conceptual study shows that the warming induced by contrail cirrus prevails only for fast vertical heat exchange by mixing within the troposphere.
Johan Strandgren, Jennifer Fricker, and Luca Bugliaro
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 4317–4339, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4317-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-4317-2017, 2017
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We characterise the the performance of a set of artificial neural networks used for the remote sensing of cirrus clouds from the geostationary Meteosat Second Generation satellites. The retrievals show little interference with the underlying land surface type as well as with possible liquid water clouds or aerosol layers below the cirrus cloud. We also characterise the retrievals as a funtion of optical thickness and top height and gain better understanding of the retrival uncertainties of CiPS
Johan Strandgren, Luca Bugliaro, Frank Sehnke, and Leon Schröder
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 3547–3573, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3547-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-3547-2017, 2017
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The new algorithm CiPS is presented and validated. CiPS detects cirrus clouds, identifies opaque pixels and retrieves the corresponding optical thickness, cloud top height and ice water path from the geostationary imager MSG/SEVIRI. CiPS utilises a set of four artificial neural networks trained with space-borne lidar data, thermal MSG/SEVIRI observations, model data and auxiliary data.
To demonstrate the capabilities of CiPS, the life cycle of a thin cirrus cloud is analysed.
Micael A. Cecchini, Luiz A. T. Machado, Meinrat O. Andreae, Scot T. Martin, Rachel I. Albrecht, Paulo Artaxo, Henrique M. J. Barbosa, Stephan Borrmann, Daniel Fütterer, Tina Jurkat, Christoph Mahnke, Andreas Minikin, Sergej Molleker, Mira L. Pöhlker, Ulrich Pöschl, Daniel Rosenfeld, Christiane Voigt, Bernadett Weinzierl, and Manfred Wendisch
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 10037–10050, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10037-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-10037-2017, 2017
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We study the effects of aerosol particles and updraft speed on the warm phase of Amazonian clouds. We expand the sensitivity analysis usually found in the literature by concomitantly considering cloud evolution and the effects on droplet size distribution (DSD) shape. The quantitative results show that particle concentration is the primary driver for the vertical profiles of effective diameter and droplet concentration in the warm phase of Amazonian convective clouds.
Evelyn Jäkel, Manfred Wendisch, Trismono C. Krisna, Florian Ewald, Tobias Kölling, Tina Jurkat, Christiane Voigt, Micael A. Cecchini, Luiz A. T. Machado, Armin Afchine, Anja Costa, Martina Krämer, Meinrat O. Andreae, Ulrich Pöschl, Daniel Rosenfeld, and Tianle Yuan
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 9049–9066, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9049-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-9049-2017, 2017
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Vertical profiles of the cloud particle phase state in tropical deep convective clouds (DCCs) were investigated using airborne imaging spectrometer measurements during the ACRIDICON-CHUVA campaign, which was conducted over the Brazilian rainforest in September 2014. A phase discrimination retrieval was applied to observations of clouds formed in different aerosol conditions. The profiles were compared to in situ and satellite measurements.
Ramon Campos Braga, Daniel Rosenfeld, Ralf Weigel, Tina Jurkat, Meinrat O. Andreae, Manfred Wendisch, Mira L. Pöhlker, Thomas Klimach, Ulrich Pöschl, Christopher Pöhlker, Christiane Voigt, Christoph Mahnke, Stephan Borrmann, Rachel I. Albrecht, Sergej Molleker, Daniel A. Vila, Luiz A. T. Machado, and Paulo Artaxo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 7365–7386, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7365-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-7365-2017, 2017
Klaus-D. Gottschaldt, Hans Schlager, Robert Baumann, Heiko Bozem, Veronika Eyring, Peter Hoor, Patrick Jöckel, Tina Jurkat, Christiane Voigt, Andreas Zahn, and Helmut Ziereis
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 6091–6111, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6091-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-6091-2017, 2017
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We present upper-tropospheric trace gas measurements in the Asian summer monsoon anticyclone, obtained with the HALO research aircraft in September 2012. The anticyclone is one of the largest atmospheric features on Earth, but many aspects of it are not well understood. With the help of model simulations we find that entrainments from the tropopause region and the lower troposphere, combined with photochemistry and dynamical instabilities, can explain the observations.
Ulrich Schumann, Christoph Kiemle, Hans Schlager, Ralf Weigel, Stephan Borrmann, Francesco D'Amato, Martina Krämer, Renaud Matthey, Alain Protat, Christiane Voigt, and C. Michael Volk
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 2311–2346, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2311-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-2311-2017, 2017
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A long-lived (1 h) contrail and overshooting convection were observed in the tropics, near Darwin, Australia. The data are used to study the contrail life cycle at low temperatures and cirrus from deep overturning convection in the lower tropical stratosphere. Airborne in situ, lidar, profiler, radar, and satellite data, as well as a photo, are used to distinguish contrail cirrus from convective cirrus and to study the origin of the observed ice and aerosol, up to 2.3 km above the tropopause.
Tobias Sirch, Luca Bugliaro, Tobias Zinner, Matthias Möhrlein, and Margarita Vazquez-Navarro
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 10, 409–429, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-409-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-10-409-2017, 2017
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A novel approach for the nowcasting of clouds and direct normal irradiance (DNI) based on the geostationary satellite MSG is presented. The basis of the algorithm is an optical flow method to derive cloud motion vectors for low and high level clouds separately. DNI is calculated from the forecasted optical thickness of the clouds. Validation against MSG observations shows good performance: compared to persistence an improvement of forecast horizon by a factor of 2 is reached for 2 h forecasts.
Ulrich Schumann, Robert Baumann, Darrel Baumgardner, Sarah T. Bedka, David P. Duda, Volker Freudenthaler, Jean-Francois Gayet, Andrew J. Heymsfield, Patrick Minnis, Markus Quante, Ehrhard Raschke, Hans Schlager, Margarita Vázquez-Navarro, Christiane Voigt, and Zhien Wang
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 17, 403–438, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-403-2017, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-17-403-2017, 2017
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The initially linear clouds often seen behind aircraft are known as contrails. Contrails are prototype cirrus clouds forming under well-known conditions, but with less certain life cycle and climate effects. This paper collects contrail data from a large set of measurements and compares them among each other and with models. The observations show consistent contrail properties over a wide range of aircraft and atmosphere conditions. The dataset is available for further research.
Christiane Voigt, Andreas Dörnbrack, Martin Wirth, Silke M. Groß, Robert Baumann, Benedikt Ehard, Michael C. Pitts, Lamont R. Poole, Björn-Martin Sinnhuber, and Hermann Oelhaf
Atmos. Chem. Phys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-1082, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-2016-1082, 2016
Revised manuscript not accepted
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The letter describes unprecedented observations of widespread and persistent polar stratospheric ice clouds (ice PSCs) in the exceptionally cold Arctic stratospheric winter 2015/16. The unique observations are of global relevance because trends in Arctic ozone loss and in polar temperatures are highly uncertain. The new observations at cold conditions serve to enhance our knowledge on ice PSC formation, Arctic ozone loss and polar stratrospheric temperatures in a changing climate.
Valery Shcherbakov, Olivier Jourdan, Christiane Voigt, Jean-Francois Gayet, Aurélien Chauvigne, Alfons Schwarzenboeck, Andreas Minikin, Marcus Klingebiel, Ralf Weigel, Stephan Borrmann, Tina Jurkat, Stefan Kaufmann, Romy Schlage, Christophe Gourbeyre, Guy Febvre, Tatyana Lapyonok, Wiebke Frey, Sergej Molleker, and Bernadett Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 11883–11897, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11883-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-11883-2016, 2016
Tobias Zinner, Petra Hausmann, Florian Ewald, Luca Bugliaro, Claudia Emde, and Bernhard Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 4615–4632, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4615-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-4615-2016, 2016
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A new retrieval of optical thickness and effective particle size of ice clouds over a wide range of optical thickness from transmittance measurements is presented. A visible range spectral slope is used to resolve the transmittance optical thickness ambiguity. Retrieval sensitivity to ice crystal habit, aerosol, albedo, sensor accuracy and lookup table interpolation is presented as well as an application of the method and comparison to satellite products for 2 days.
Claudia Emde, Robert Buras-Schnell, Arve Kylling, Bernhard Mayer, Josef Gasteiger, Ulrich Hamann, Jonas Kylling, Bettina Richter, Christian Pause, Timothy Dowling, and Luca Bugliaro
Geosci. Model Dev., 9, 1647–1672, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-1647-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-9-1647-2016, 2016
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libradtran is a widely used software package for radiative transfer calculations. It allows one to compute (polarized) radiances, irradiance, and actinic fluxes in the solar and thermal spectral regions. This paper gives an overview of libradtran version 2.0 with focus on new features (e.g. polarization, Raman scattering, absorption parameterization, cloud and aerosol optical properties). libRadtran is freely available at http://www.libradtran.org.
Tina Jurkat, Stefan Kaufmann, Christiane Voigt, Dominik Schäuble, Philipp Jeßberger, and Helmut Ziereis
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 1907–1923, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1907-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-1907-2016, 2016
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The paper details novel mass spectrometric measurements with AIMS-TG aboard the new German research aircraft HALO. The measurements comprise a wide range of tracers with characteristic source regions. Using these tracers, stratospheric and tropospheric air in the UTLS is tagged. The instrument is equipped with a new discharge ionization source, an in-flight calibration and improved transmission of adhesive gases like HNO3 and HCl. AIMS was built to characterize transport and mixing in the UTLS.
Stefan Kaufmann, Christiane Voigt, Tina Jurkat, Troy Thornberry, David W. Fahey, Ru-Shan Gao, Romy Schlage, Dominik Schäuble, and Martin Zöger
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 9, 939–953, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-939-2016, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-9-939-2016, 2016
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We present the development of a new airborne mass spectrometer AIMS-H2O for the fast and accurate measurement of water vapor in the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere. The high accuracy needed for e.g. quantification of atmospheric water vapor transport processes or cloud formation is achieved by an in-flight calibration of the instrument. AIMS-H2O is deployed on the DLR research aircraft HALO and Falcon where it covers a range of water vapor mixing ratios from 1 to 500 ppmv.
U. Schumann, J. E. Penner, Yibin Chen, Cheng Zhou, and K. Graf
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 15, 11179–11199, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11179-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-15-11179-2015, 2015
C. Mallaun, A. Giez, and R. Baumann
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 3177–3196, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3177-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-3177-2015, 2015
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We demonstrate a calibration method for the three-dimensional wind measurements on a research aircraft, which are strongly influenced by dynamical effects during flight. We correct these errors step by step after an extensive test flight program including new methods to gain optimum correction coefficients and a direct estimation of the residual errors. The overall error, estimated with a novel error propagation scheme, is 0.3 m/s for the horizontal and 0.2 m/s for the vertical wind.
J. Ungermann, J. Blank, M. Dick, A. Ebersoldt, F. Friedl-Vallon, A. Giez, T. Guggenmoser, M. Höpfner, T. Jurkat, M. Kaufmann, S. Kaufmann, A. Kleinert, M. Krämer, T. Latzko, H. Oelhaf, F. Olchewski, P. Preusse, C. Rolf, J. Schillings, O. Suminska-Ebersoldt, V. Tan, N. Thomas, C. Voigt, A. Zahn, M. Zöger, and M. Riese
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 2473–2489, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2473-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-2473-2015, 2015
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The GLORIA sounder is an airborne infrared limb-imager combining a two-dimensional infrared detector with a Fourier transform spectrometer. It was operated aboard the new German Gulfstream G550 research aircraft HALO during the TACTS and ESMVAL campaigns in summer 2012. This paper describes the retrieval of temperature, as well as H2O, HNO3, and O3 cross sections from GLORIA dynamics mode spectra. A high correlation is achieved between the remote sensing and the in situ trace gas measurements.
Y. Ren, R. Baumann, and H. Schlager
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 8, 69–80, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-69-2015, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-8-69-2015, 2015
S. Kox, L. Bugliaro, and A. Ostler
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 3233–3246, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-3233-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-3233-2014, 2014
U. Hamann, A. Walther, B. Baum, R. Bennartz, L. Bugliaro, M. Derrien, P. N. Francis, A. Heidinger, S. Joro, A. Kniffka, H. Le Gléau, M. Lockhoff, H.-J. Lutz, J. F. Meirink, P. Minnis, R. Palikonda, R. Roebeling, A. Thoss, S. Platnick, P. Watts, and G. Wind
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2839–2867, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2839-2014, 2014
S. Groß, M. Wirth, A. Schäfler, A. Fix, S. Kaufmann, and C. Voigt
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 2745–2755, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2745-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-2745-2014, 2014
F. Dahlkötter, M. Gysel, D. Sauer, A. Minikin, R. Baumann, P. Seifert, A. Ansmann, M. Fromm, C. Voigt, and B. Weinzierl
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 6111–6137, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6111-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-6111-2014, 2014
B. Reinhardt, R. Buras, L. Bugliaro, S. Wilbert, and B. Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 7, 823–838, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-823-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-7-823-2014, 2014
J.-F. Gayet, V. Shcherbakov, L. Bugliaro, A. Protat, J. Delanoë, J. Pelon, and A. Garnier
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 14, 899–912, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-899-2014, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-14-899-2014, 2014
U. Schumann, R. Hempel, H. Flentje, M. Garhammer, K. Graf, S. Kox, H. Lösslein, and B. Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 3597–3612, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-3597-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-3597-2013, 2013
P. Jeßberger, C. Voigt, U. Schumann, I. Sölch, H. Schlager, S. Kaufmann, A. Petzold, D. Schäuble, and J.-F. Gayet
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 11965–11984, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-11965-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-11965-2013, 2013
T. D. Thornberry, A. W. Rollins, R. S. Gao, L. A. Watts, S. J. Ciciora, R. J. McLaughlin, C. Voigt, B. Hall, and D. W. Fahey
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 1461–1475, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1461-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-1461-2013, 2013
K. Gottschaldt, C. Voigt, P. Jöckel, M. Righi, R. Deckert, and S. Dietmüller
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 13, 3003–3025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3003-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-13-3003-2013, 2013
F. Ewald, L. Bugliaro, H. Mannstein, and B. Mayer
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 6, 309–322, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-309-2013, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-6-309-2013, 2013
Related subject area
Subject: Clouds and Precipitation | Research Activity: Atmospheric Modelling and Data Analysis | Altitude Range: Troposphere | Science Focus: Physics (physical properties and processes)
Counteracting influences of gravitational settling modulate aerosol impacts on cloud-base-lowering fog characteristics
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Technical note: Phase space depiction of cloud condensation nuclei activation and cloud droplet diffusional growth
Impact of wildfire smoke on Arctic cirrus formation – Part 2: Simulation of MOSAiC 2019–2020 cases
Constraining aerosol–cloud adjustments by uniting surface observations with a perturbed parameter ensemble
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The influence of Amazonian anthropogenic emissions on new particle formation, aerosol, cloud and surface rain
Impact of secondary ice production on thunderstorm electrification under different aerosol conditions
Accelerated impact of airborne glaciogenic seeding of stratiform clouds by turbulence
Model analysis of biases in the satellite-diagnosed aerosol effect on the cloud liquid water path
Evaluation of biases in mid-to-high-latitude surface snowfall and cloud phase in ERA5 and CMIP6 using satellite observations
Failed cyclogenesis of a mesoscale convective system near Cape Verde: The role of the Saharan trade wind layer among other inhibiting factors observed during the CADDIWA field campaign
Dynamical imprints on precipitation cluster statistics across a hierarchy of high-resolution simulations
Ice formation processes key in determining WCB outflow cirrus properties
Role of a key microphysical factor in mixed-phase stratocumulus clouds and their interactions with aerosols
High-resolution modelling of early contrail evolution from hydrogen-powered aircraft
Investigating the impact of subgrid-scale aerosol-cloud interaction on mesoscale meteorology prediction
Correction of ERA5 temperature and relative humidity biases by bivariate quantile mapping for contrail formation analysis
Can pollen affect precipitation?
Potential impacts of marine fuel regulations on an Arctic stratocumulus case and its radiative response
The impact of the mesh size and microphysics scheme on the representation of mid-level clouds in the ICON model in hilly and complex terrain
The role of ascent timescales for warm conveyor belt (WCB) moisture transport into the upper troposphere and lower stratosphere (UTLS)
Magnitude and timescale of liquid water path adjustments to cloud droplet number concentration perturbations for nocturnal non-precipitating marine stratocumulus
On the Processes Determining the Slope of Cloud-Water Adjustments in Non-Precipitating Stratocumulus
Estimating the concentration of silver iodide needed to detect unambiguous signatures of glaciogenic cloud seeding
On the impact of thunder on cloud ice crystals and droplets
Ice-nucleating particle concentration impacts cloud properties over Dronning Maud Land, East Antarctica, in COSMO-CLM2
Numerical simulation of aerosol concentration effects on cloud droplet size spectrum evolutions of warm stratiform clouds in Jiangxi, China
The impact of aerosol on cloud water: a heuristic perspective
Cold pools mediate mesoscale adjustments of trade-cumulus fields to changes in cloud-droplet number concentration
The presence of clouds lowers climate sensitivity in the MPI-ESM1.2 climate model
Diurnal variation in an amplified canopy urban heat island during heat wave periods in the megacity of Beijing: roles of mountain–valley breeze and urban morphology
Diurnal evolution of non-precipitating marine stratocumuli in a large-eddy simulation ensemble
Ambient and Intrinsic Dependencies of Evolving Ice-Phase Particles within a Decaying Winter Storm During IMPACTS
Building a comprehensive library of observed Lagrangian trajectories for testing modeled cloud evolution, aerosol-cloud interactions, and marine cloud brightening
Numerical Case Study of the Aerosol-Cloud-Interactions in Warm Boundary Layer Clouds over the Eastern North Atlantic with an Interactive Chemistry Module
High ice water content in tropical mesoscale convective systems (a conceptual model)
Evolution of cloud droplet temperature and lifetime in spatiotemporally varying subsaturated environments with implications for ice nucleation at cloud edges
Effect of secondary ice production processes on the simulation of ice pellets using the Predicted Particle Properties microphysics scheme
Simulated particle evolution within a winter storm: contributions of riming to radar moments and precipitation fallout
Arctic Multilayer Clouds Require Accurate Thermodynamic Profiles and Efficient Primary and Secondary Ice Processes for a Realistic Structure and Composition
A thermal-driven graupel generation process to explain dry-season convective vigor over the Amazon
Modeling homogeneous ice nucleation from drop-freezing experiments: impact of droplet volume dispersion and cooling rates
Cloud water adjustments to aerosol perturbations are buffered by solar heating in non-precipitating marine stratocumuli
Glaciation of mixed-phase clouds: insights from bulk model and bin-microphysics large-eddy simulation informed by laboratory experiment
Influence of Temperature and Humidity on Contrail Formation Regions in EMAC: A Spring Case Study
Microphysical processes involving the vapour phase dominate in simulated low-level Arctic clouds
Understanding aerosol–cloud interactions using a single-column model for a cold-air outbreak case during the ACTIVATE campaign
Nathan H. Pope and Adele L. Igel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5433–5444, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5433-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5433-2025, 2025
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We used an atmospheric model that simulates a single column to study the sensitivity of marine fog formed through the lowering of the base of a stratus cloud to meteorology and aerosols. We found that higher aerosol concentration reduces the likelihood and duration of fog but leads to denser fog. This overall trend was caused by multiple physical mechanisms depending on conditions.
Jung-Sub Lim, Yign Noh, Hyunho Lee, and Fabian Hoffmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5313–5329, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5313-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5313-2025, 2025
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Rain formation in warm clouds begins when small droplets collide, but this process can be slow without larger droplets. We used simulations to explore the role of bigger droplets, known as precipitation embryos, in triggering rain. We found that they speed up rain only when their size and number exceed a critical threshold. This threshold becomes larger when collisions are naturally efficient, such as in clouds with broad droplet size distributions or strong turbulence.
Je-Yun Chun, Robert Wood, Peter N. Blossey, and Sarah J. Doherty
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5251–5271, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5251-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5251-2025, 2025
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This study explores how aerosols affect clouds transitioning from stratocumulus to cumulus along trade winds under varying atmospheric conditions. We found that aerosols typically reduce precipitation and raise cloud height, but their impact changes when subsidence changes by aerosol enhancement are considered. Our findings indicate that the cooling effect of aerosols might be overestimated if these atmospheric changes are not accounted for.
Wojciech W. Grabowski and Hanna Pawlowska
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 5273–5285, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5273-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-5273-2025, 2025
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A simple diagram to depict cloud droplets' formation via the activation of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) as well as their subsequent growth and evaporation is presented.
Albert Ansmann, Cristofer Jimenez, Daniel A. Knopf, Johanna Roschke, Johannes Bühl, Kevin Ohneiser, and Ronny Engelmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4867–4884, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4867-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4867-2025, 2025
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In this study, we focus on the potential impact of wildfire smoke on cirrus formation. Aerosol and cirrus observations with lidar and radar during the MOSAiC (Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the Study of Arctic Climate) expedition, presented in the companion paper (Ansmann et al., 2025), are closely linked to comprehensive modeling of ice nucleation in cirrus evolution processes, presented in this article. A clear impact of wildfire smoke on cirrus formation was found.
August Mikkelsen, Daniel T. McCoy, Trude Eidhammer, Andrew Gettelman, Ci Song, Hamish Gordon, and Isabel L. McCoy
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4547–4570, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4547-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4547-2025, 2025
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Whether increased aerosol increases or decreases liquid cloud mass has been a longstanding question. Observed correlations suggest that aerosols thin liquid cloud, but we are able to show that observations were consistent with an increase in liquid cloud in response to aerosols by leveraging a model where causality could be traced.
Tim Lüttmer, Peter Spichtinger, and Axel Seifert
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 4505–4529, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4505-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-4505-2025, 2025
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We investigate ice formation pathways in idealized convective clouds using a novel microphysics scheme that distinguishes between five ice classes each with their own unique formation mechanism. Ice crystals from rime splintering form the lowermost layer of ice crystals around the updraft core. The majority of ice crystals in the anvil of the convective cloud stems from frozen droplets. Ice stemming from homogeneous and deposition nucleation was only relevant in the overshoot.
Fan Yang, Hamed Fahandezh Sadi, Raymond A. Shaw, Fabian Hoffmann, Pei Hou, Aaron Wang, and Mikhail Ovchinnikov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 3785–3806, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3785-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-3785-2025, 2025
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Large-eddy simulations of a convection cloud chamber show two new microphysics regimes, cloud oscillation and cloud collapse, due to haze–cloud interactions. Our results suggest that haze particles and their interactions with cloud droplets should be considered especially in polluted conditions. To properly simulate haze–cloud interactions, we need to resolve droplet activation and deactivation processes, instead of using Twomey-type activation parameterization.
Xuemei Wang, Kenneth S. Carslaw, Daniel P. Grosvenor, and Hamish Gordon
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-132, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-132, 2025
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Anthropogenic emissions can influence aerosol particle number concentrations via new particle formation. Our model simulations predict around 10 % increase of the particle and cloud droplet number concentrations when doubling the emissions in the Manaus region in the Amazonian wet season. However, the corresponding changes in cloud water and rain mass are around 4 %. Such weak response implied that this convective environment is not sensitive to the localised anthropogenic emission changes here.
Shiye Huang, Jing Yang, Jiaojiao Li, Qian Chen, Qilin Zhang, and Fengxia Guo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1831–1850, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1831-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1831-2025, 2025
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Aerosol and secondary ice production are both vital to charge separation in thunderstorms, but the relative importance of different SIP processes to cloud electrification under different aerosol conditions is not well understood. In this study, we show in a clean environment, the shattering of freezing drops has the greatest effect on the charging rate, while in a polluted environment, both rime splintering and the shattering of freezing drops have a significant effect on cloud electrification.
Meilian Chen, Xiaoqin Jing, Jiaojiao Li, Jing Yang, Xiaobo Dong, Bart Geerts, Yan Yin, Baojun Chen, Lulin Xue, Mengyu Huang, Ping Tian, and Shaofeng Hua
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-47, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-47, 2025
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Several recent studies have reported complete cloud glaciation induced by airborne-based glaciogenic cloud seeding over plains. Since turbulence is an important factor to maintain clouds in mixed-phase, it is hypothesized that turbulence may have an impact on the seeding effect. This hypothesis is evident in the present study, which shows turbulence can accelerate the impact of airborne glaciogenic seeding of stratiform clouds.
Harri Kokkola, Juha Tonttila, Silvia M. Calderón, Sami Romakkaniemi, Antti Lipponen, Aapo Peräkorpi, Tero Mielonen, Edward Gryspeerdt, Timo Henrik Virtanen, Pekka Kolmonen, and Antti Arola
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1533–1543, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1533-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1533-2025, 2025
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Understanding how atmospheric aerosols affect clouds is a scientific challenge. One question is how aerosols affects the amount of cloud water. We used a cloud-scale model to study these effects on marine clouds. The study showed that variations in cloud properties and instrument noise can cause bias in satellite-derived cloud water content. However, our results suggest that for similar weather conditions with well-defined aerosol concentrations, satellite data can reliably track these effects.
Franziska Hellmuth, Tim Carlsen, Anne Sophie Daloz, Robert Oscar David, Haochi Che, and Trude Storelvmo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1353–1383, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1353-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1353-2025, 2025
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This article compares the occurrence of supercooled liquid-containing clouds (sLCCs) and their link to surface snowfall in CloudSat–CALIPSO, ERA5, and the CMIP6 models. Significant discrepancies were found, with ERA5 and CMIP6 consistently overestimating sLCC and snowfall frequency. This bias is likely due to cloud microphysics parameterization. This conclusion has implications for accurately representing cloud phase and snowfall in future climate projections.
Guillaume Feger, Jean-Pierre Chaboureau, Thibaut Dauhut, Julien Delanoë, and Pierre Coutris
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-105, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-105, 2025
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The Saharan air at trade wind layer, cold pools, and upper tropospheric dry air are identified as the three main factors inhibiting the cyclogenesis of the Pierre Henri mesoscale convective system. The findings were obtained trough observations made during two flights of the CADDIWA campaign and a convection-permitting simulation run with the Meso-NH model. They provide new insights into the complex dynamics of cyclogenesis in the Cape Verde region and challenge the existing model of the SAL.
Claudia Christine Stephan and Bjorn Stevens
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 1209–1226, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1209-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-1209-2025, 2025
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Tropical precipitation cluster area and intensity distributions follow power laws, but the physical processes responsible for this behavior remain unknown. We analyze global simulations that realistically represent precipitation processes. We consider Earth-like planets as well as virtual planets to realize different types of large-scale dynamics. Our finding is that power laws in Earth’s precipitation cluster statistics stem from the robust power laws in Earth’s atmospheric wind field.
Tim Lüttmer, Annette Miltenberger, and Peter Spichtinger
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-185, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-185, 2025
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We investigate ice formation pathways in a warm conveyor belt case study. We employ a multi-phase microphysics scheme that distinguishes between ice from different nucleation processes. Ice crystals in the cirrus outflow mostly stem from in-situ formation. Hence they were formed directly from the vapor phase. Sedimentational redistribution modulates cirrus properties and leads to a disagreement between cirrus origin classifications based on thermodynamic history and nucleation processes.
Seoung Soo Lee, Chang Hoon Jung, Jinho Choi, Young Jun Yoon, Junshik Um, Youtong Zheng, Jianping Guo, Manguttathil G. Manoj, Sang-Keun Song, and Kyung-Ja Ha
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 705–726, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-705-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-705-2025, 2025
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This study attempts to test a general factor that explains differences in the properties of different mixed-phase clouds using a modeling tool. Although this attempt is not to identify a factor that can perfectly explain and represent the properties of different mixed-phase clouds, we believe that this attempt acts as a valuable stepping stone towards a more complete, general way of using climate models to better predict climate change.
Annemarie Lottermoser and Simon Unterstraßer
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3859, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3859, 2025
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Contrail-cirrus significantly contributes to aviation's overall climate impact. As hydrogen combustion and fuel cell use are emerging technologies for aircraft propulsion, we simulated individual contrails from hydrogen propulsion during the first six minutes after exhaust emission, termed the vortex phase. The ice crystal loss during that stage is crucial as the number of ice crystals has a large impact on the further evolution of contrails into contrail-cirrus and their radiative forcing.
Wenjie Zhang, Hong Wang, Xiaoye Zhang, Yue Peng, Zhaodong Liu, Deying Wang, Da Zhang, Chen Han, Yang Zhao, Junting Zhong, Wenxing Jia, Huiqiong Ning, and Huizheng Che
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3677, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3677, 2025
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We implement a real-time subgrid-scale aerosol-cloud interaction (ACI) mechanism in a mesoscale atmospheric chemistry system and find that subgrid-scale ACI can improve meteorological factors predictions. This study demonstrates the importance of real-time subgrid-scale ACI to weather forecast and the necessity of multiscale ACI studies.
Kevin Wolf, Nicolas Bellouin, Olivier Boucher, Susanne Rohs, and Yun Li
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 157–181, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-157-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-157-2025, 2025
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ERA5 atmospheric reanalysis and airborne in situ observations from IAGOS are compared in terms of the representation of the contrail formation potential and the presence of supersaturation. Differences are traced back to biases in ERA5 relative humidity fields. Those biases are addressed by applying a quantile mapping technique that significantly improved contrail estimation based on post-processed ERA5 data.
Marje Prank, Juha Tonttila, Xiaoxia Shang, Sami Romakkaniemi, and Tomi Raatikainen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 183–197, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-183-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-183-2025, 2025
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Large primary bioparticles such as pollen can be abundant in the atmosphere. In humid conditions pollen can rupture and release a large number of fine sub-pollen particles (SPPs). The paper investigates what kind of birch pollen concentrations are needed for the pollen and SPPs to start playing a noticeable role in cloud processes and alter precipitation formation. In the studied cases only the largest observed pollen concentrations were able to noticeably alter the precipitation formation.
Luís Filipe Escusa dos Santos, Hannah C. Frostenberg, Alejandro Baró Pérez, Annica M. L. Ekman, Luisa Ickes, and Erik S. Thomson
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 119–142, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-119-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-119-2025, 2025
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The Arctic is experiencing enhanced surface warming. The observed decline in Arctic sea-ice extent is projected to lead to an increase in Arctic shipping activity, which may lead to further climatic feedbacks. Using an atmospheric model and results from marine engine experiments that focused on fuel sulfur content reduction and exhaust wet scrubbing, we investigate how ship exhaust particles influence the properties of Arctic clouds. Implications for radiative surface processes are discussed.
Nadja Omanovic, Brigitta Goger, and Ulrike Lohmann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14145–14175, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14145-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14145-2024, 2024
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We evaluated the numerical weather model ICON in two horizontal resolutions with two bulk microphysics schemes over hilly and complex terrain in Switzerland and Austria, respectively. We focused on the model's ability to simulate mid-level clouds in summer and winter. By combining observational data from two different field campaigns, we show that an increase in the horizontal resolution and a more advanced cloud microphysics scheme is strongly beneficial for cloud representation.
Cornelis Schwenk and Annette Miltenberger
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 14073–14099, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14073-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-14073-2024, 2024
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Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) transport moisture into the upper atmosphere, where it acts as a greenhouse gas. This transport is not well understood, and the role of rapidly rising air is unclear. We simulate a WCB and look at fast- and slow-rising air to see how moisture is (differently) transported. We find that for fast-ascending air more ice particles reach higher into the atmosphere and that frozen cloud particles are removed differently than during slow ascent, which has more water vapour.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Prasanth Prabhakaran, Fabian Hoffmann, Jan Kazil, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3891, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3891, 2024
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Injecting sea salt aerosols into marine stratiform clouds can distribute the cloud water over more droplets in smaller sizes. This process is expected to make the clouds brighter, allowing them to reflect more sunlight back to space. However, it may also cause the clouds to lose water over time, reducing their ability to reflect sunlight. We use a computer model to show that the loss of cloud water occurs relatively quickly and does not completely offset the initial brightening.
Fabian Hoffmann, Yao-Sheng Chen, and Graham Feingold
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3893, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3893, 2024
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Clouds reflect a substantial portion of the incoming solar radiation back into space. This capacity is determined by the number of cloud droplets, which in turn is influenced by the number of aerosol particles, forming the basis for aerosol-cloud-climate interactions. In this study, we use a simple mixed-layer approach to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water in non-precipitating stratocumulus.
Jing Yang, Jiaojiao Li, Meilian Chen, Xiaoqin Jing, Yan Yin, Bart Geerts, Zhien Wang, Yubao Liu, Baojun Chen, Shaofeng Hua, Hao Hu, Xiaobo Dong, Ping Tian, Qian Chen, and Yang Gao
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13833–13848, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13833-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13833-2024, 2024
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Detecting unambiguous signatures is vital for examining cloud-seeding impacts, but often, seeding signatures are immersed in natural variability. In this study, reflectivity changes induced by glaciogenic seeding using different AgI concentrations are investigated under various conditions, and a method is developed to estimate the AgI concentration needed to detect unambiguous seeding signatures. The results aid in operational seeding-based decision-making regarding the amount of AgI dispersed.
Konstantinos Kourtidis, Stavros Stathopoulos, and Vassilis Amiridis
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3314, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3314, 2024
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The loud sound of thunder will induce mechanical effects on cloud droplets and ice particles, causing changes in their size distribution.
Florian Sauerland, Niels Souverijns, Anna Possner, Heike Wex, Preben Van Overmeiren, Alexander Mangold, Kwinten Van Weverberg, and Nicole van Lipzig
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13751–13768, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13751-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13751-2024, 2024
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We use a regional climate model, COSMO-CLM², enhanced with a module resolving aerosol processes, to study Antarctic clouds. We prescribe different concentrations of ice-nucleating particles to our model to assess how these clouds respond to concentration changes, validating results with cloud and aerosol observations from the Princess Elisabeth Antarctica station. Our results show that aerosol–cloud interactions vary with temperature, providing valuable insights into Antarctic cloud dynamics.
Yi Li, Xiaoli Liu, and Hengjia Cai
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13525–13540, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13525-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13525-2024, 2024
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The influence of different aerosol modes on cloud processes remains controversial. We modified the aerosol spectra and concentrations to simulate a warm stratiform cloud process in Jiangxi, China, using the WRF-SBM scheme. Research shows that different aerosol spectra have diverse effects on cloud droplet spectra, cloud development, and the correlation between dispersion (ε) and cloud physics quantities. Compared to cloud droplet concentration, ε is more sensitive to the volume radius.
Fabian Hoffmann, Franziska Glassmeier, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 13403–13412, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-13403-2024, 2024
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Clouds constitute a major cooling influence on Earth's climate system by reflecting a large fraction of the incident solar radiation back to space. This ability is controlled by the number of cloud droplets, which is governed by the number of aerosol particles in the atmosphere, laying the foundation for so-called aerosol–cloud–climate interactions. In this study, a simple model to understand the effect of aerosol on cloud water is developed and applied.
Pouriya Alinaghi, Fredrik Jansson, Daniel A. Blázquez, and Franziska Glassmeier
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3501, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3501, 2024
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Shallow clouds in the trades are a major source of uncertainty in climate projections. These clouds organize into striking mesoscale patterns that are exactly what climate models lack. This study explores the origin of such patterns and investigates how variations in microscale properties control them. The importance of microscale effects is compared to that of large-scale forcing on the mesoscale organization of trade-cumulus fields.
Andrea Mosso, Thomas Hocking, and Thorsten Mauritsen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12793–12806, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12793-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12793-2024, 2024
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Clouds play a crucial role in the Earth's energy balance, as they can either warm up or cool down the area they cover depending on their height and depth. They are expected to alter their behaviour under climate change, affecting the warming generated by greenhouse gases. This paper proposes a new method to estimate their overall effect on this warming by simulating a climate where clouds are transparent. Results show that with the model used, clouds have a stabilising effect on climate.
Tao Shi, Yuanjian Yang, Ping Qi, and Simone Lolli
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12807–12822, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12807-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12807-2024, 2024
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This paper explored the formation mechanisms of the amplified canopy urban heat island intensity (ΔCUHII) during heat wave (HW) periods in the megacity of Beijing from the perspectives of mountain–valley breeze and urban morphology. During the mountain breeze phase, high-rise buildings with lower sky view factors (SVFs) had a pronounced effect on the ΔCUHII. During the valley breeze phase, high-rise buildings exerted a dual influence on the ΔCUHII.
Yao-Sheng Chen, Jianhao Zhang, Fabian Hoffmann, Takanobu Yamaguchi, Franziska Glassmeier, Xiaoli Zhou, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 12661–12685, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12661-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-12661-2024, 2024
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Marine stratocumulus cloud is a type of shallow cloud that covers the vast areas of Earth's surface. It plays an important role in Earth's energy balance by reflecting solar radiation back to space. We used numerical models to simulate a large number of marine stratocumuli with different characteristics. We found that how the clouds develop throughout the day is affected by the level of humidity in the air above the clouds and how closely the clouds connect to the ocean surface.
Andrew DeLaFrance, Lynn McMurdie, Angela Rowe, and Andrew Heymsfield
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3423, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3423, 2024
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Numerical modeling simulations are used to investigate ice crystal growth and decay processes within a banded region of enhanced precipitation rates during a prominent winter storm. We identify robust primary ice growth in the upper portion of the cloud but decay exceeding 70 % during fallout through a subsaturated layer. The ice fall characteristics and decay rate are sensitive to the ambient cloud properties which has implications for radar-based measurements and precipitation accumulations.
Ehsan Erfani, Robert Wood, Peter Blossey, Sarah J. Doherty, and Ryan Eastman
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3232, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3232, 2024
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In this study, we explore how marine clouds interact with aerosols. We introduce a novel approach to identify a reduced number of representative cases from a wide array of observed environmental conditions prevalent in the Northeast Pacific. We created over 2200 trajectories from observations and used cloud-resolving simulations to investigate how marine low clouds evolve in two different cases. It is shown that aerosols can delay cloud breakup, but their impact depends on precipitation.
Hsiang-He Lee, Xue Zheng, Shaoyue Qiu, and Yuan Wang
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3199, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-3199, 2024
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The study investigates how aerosol-cloud interactions affect warm boundary layer stratiform clouds over the Eastern North Atlantic. High-resolution WRF-Chem simulations reveal that non-rain clouds at the edges of cloud systems are prone to evaporation, leading to an aerosol drying effect and a transition of aerosols back to accumulation mode for future activation. The study emphasizes that this dynamic behavior is often not adequately represented in most previous prescribed-aerosol simulations.
Alexei Korolev, Zhipeng Qu, Jason Milbrandt, Ivan Heckman, Mélissa Cholette, Mengistu Wolde, Cuong Nguyen, Greg M. McFarquhar, Paul Lawson, and Ann M. Fridlind
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11849–11881, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11849-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11849-2024, 2024
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The phenomenon of high ice water content (HIWC) occurs in mesoscale convective systems (MCSs) when a large number of small ice particles with typical sizes of a few hundred micrometers is found at high altitudes. It was found that secondary ice production in the vicinity of the melting layer plays a key role in the formation and maintenance of HIWC. This study presents a conceptual model of the formation of HIWC in tropical MCSs based on in situ observations and numerical simulation.
Puja Roy, Robert M. Rauber, and Larry Di Girolamo
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11653–11678, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11653-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11653-2024, 2024
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Cloud droplet temperature and lifetime impact cloud microphysical processes such as the activation of ice-nucleating particles. We investigate the thermal and radial evolution of supercooled cloud droplets and their surrounding environments with an aim to better understand observed enhanced ice formation at supercooled cloud edges. This analysis shows that the magnitude of droplet cooling during evaporation is greater than estimated from past studies, especially for drier environments.
Mathieu Lachapelle, Mélissa Cholette, and Julie M. Thériault
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11285–11304, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11285-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11285-2024, 2024
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Hazardous precipitation types such as ice pellets and freezing rain are difficult to predict because they are associated with complex microphysical processes. Using Predicted Particle Properties (P3), this work shows that secondary ice production processes increase the amount of ice pellets simulated while decreasing the amount of freezing rain. Moreover, the properties of the simulated precipitation compare well with those that were measured.
Andrew DeLaFrance, Lynn A. McMurdie, Angela K. Rowe, and Andrew J. Heymsfield
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 11191–11206, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11191-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-11191-2024, 2024
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Using a numerical model, the process whereby falling ice crystals accumulate supercooled liquid water droplets is investigated to elucidate its effects on radar-based measurements and surface precipitation. We demonstrate that this process accounted for 55% of the precipitation during a wintertime storm and is uniquely discernable from other ice crystal growth processes in Doppler velocity measurements. These results have implications for measurements from airborne and spaceborne platforms.
Gabriella Wallentin, Annika Oertel, Luisa Ickes, Peggy Achtert, Matthias Tesche, and Corinna Hoose
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2988, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2988, 2024
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Multilayer clouds are common in the Arctic but remain understudied. We use an atmospheric model to simulate multilayer cloud cases from the Arctic expedition MOSAiC 2019/2020. We find that it is complex to accurately model these cloud layers due to the lack of correct temperature and humidity profiles. The model also struggles to capture the observed cloud phase, the relative concentration of cloud droplets and cloud ice. We constrain our model to measured aerosols to mitigate this issue.
Toshi Matsui, Daniel Hernandez-Deckers, Scott E. Giangrande, Thiago S. Biscaro, Ann Fridlind, and Scott Braun
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10793–10814, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10793-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10793-2024, 2024
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Using computer simulations and real measurements, we discovered that storms over the Amazon were narrower but more intense during the dry periods, producing heavier rain and more ice particles in the clouds. Our research showed that cumulus bubbles played a key role in creating these intense storms. This study can improve the representation of the effect of continental and ocean environments on tropical regions' rainfall patterns in simulations.
Ravi Kumar Reddy Addula, Ingrid de Almeida Ribeiro, Valeria Molinero, and Baron Peters
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10833–10848, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10833-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10833-2024, 2024
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Ice nucleation from supercooled droplets is important in many weather and climate modeling efforts. For experiments where droplets are steadily supercooled from the freezing point, our work combines nucleation theory and survival probability analysis to predict the nucleation spectrum, i.e., droplet freezing probabilities vs. temperature. We use the new framework to extract approximately consistent rate parameters from experiments with different cooling rates and droplet sizes.
Jianhao Zhang, Yao-Sheng Chen, Takanobu Yamaguchi, and Graham Feingold
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10425–10440, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10425-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10425-2024, 2024
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Quantifying cloud response to aerosol perturbations presents a major challenge in understanding the human impact on climate. Using a large number of process-resolving simulations of marine stratocumulus, we show that solar heating drives a negative feedback mechanism that buffers the persistent negative trend in cloud water adjustment after sunrise. This finding has implications for the dependence of the cloud cooling effect on the timing of deliberate aerosol perturbations.
Aaron Wang, Steve Krueger, Sisi Chen, Mikhail Ovchinnikov, Will Cantrell, and Raymond A. Shaw
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10245–10260, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10245-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10245-2024, 2024
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We employ two methods to examine a laboratory experiment on clouds with both ice and liquid phases. The first assumes well-mixed properties; the second resolves the spatial distribution of turbulence and cloud particles. Results show that while the trends in mean properties generally align, when turbulence is resolved, liquid droplets are not fully depleted by ice due to incomplete mixing. This underscores the threshold of ice mass fraction in distinguishing mixed-phase clouds from ice clouds.
Patrick Peter, Sigrun Matthes, Christine Frömming, Patrick Jöckel, Luca Bugliaro, Andreas Giez, Martina Krämer, and Volker Grewe
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2142, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2024-2142, 2024
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Our study examines how temperature and humidity representations influence contrail (-cirrus) formation criteria. Using various model setups, we identified biases that lead to overestimation of contrail formation areas. By comparing simulations with in-flight and satellite observations, we confirmed that humidity threshold choices greatly affect contrail predictions. These findings can help develop strategies for climate-optimized flight routes, potentially reducing aviation's climate effect.
Theresa Kiszler, Davide Ori, and Vera Schemann
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10039–10053, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10039-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10039-2024, 2024
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Microphysical processes impact the phase-partitioning of clouds. In this study we evaluate these processes while focusing on low-level Arctic clouds. To achieve this we used an extensive simulation set in combination with a new diagnostic tool. This study presents our findings on the relevance of these processes and their behaviour under different thermodynamic regimes.
Shuaiqi Tang, Hailong Wang, Xiang-Yu Li, Jingyi Chen, Armin Sorooshian, Xubin Zeng, Ewan Crosbie, Kenneth L. Thornhill, Luke D. Ziemba, and Christiane Voigt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 10073–10092, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10073-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10073-2024, 2024
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We examined marine boundary layer clouds and their interactions with aerosols in the E3SM single-column model (SCM) for a case study. The SCM shows good agreement when simulating the clouds with high-resolution models. It reproduces the relationship between cloud droplet and aerosol particle number concentrations as produced in global models. However, the relationship between cloud liquid water and droplet number concentration is different, warranting further investigation.
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Short summary
The roughly 70 % reduction of air traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic from March–August 2020 compared to 2019 provides a test case for the relationship between air traffic density, contrails, and their radiative forcing of climate change. This paper investigates the induced traffic and contrail changes in a model study. Besides strong weather changes, the model results indicate aviation-induced cirrus and top-of-the-atmosphere irradiance changes, which can be tested with observations.
The roughly 70 % reduction of air traffic during the COVID-19 pandemic from March–August 2020...
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