Articles | Volume 23, issue 3
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2035-2023
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2035-2023
Research article
 | 
08 Feb 2023
Research article |  | 08 Feb 2023

Impact of formulations of the homogeneous nucleation rate on ice nucleation events in cirrus

Peter Spichtinger, Patrik Marschalik, and Manuel Baumgartner

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Cited articles

Baumgartner, M. and Spichtinger, P.: Homogeneous nucleation from an asymptotic point of view, Theor. Comp. Fluid Dyn., 33, 83–106, https://doi.org/10.1007/s00162-019-00484-0, 2019. a, b, c, d, e, f, g, h
Baumgartner, M., Weigel, R., Harvey, A. H., Plöger, F., Achatz, U., and Spichtinger, P.: Reappraising the appropriate calculation of a common meteorological quantity: potential temperature, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 20, 15585–15616, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-20-15585-2020, 2020. a, b
Baumgartner, M., Rolf, C., Grooß, J.-U., Schneider, J., Schorr, T., Möhler, O., Spichtinger, P., and Krämer, M.: New investigations on homogeneous ice nucleation: the effects of water activity and water saturation formulations, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 65–91, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, 2022. a, b, c
de Reus, M., Borrmann, S., Bansemer, A., Heymsfield, A. J., Weigel, R., Schiller, C., Mitev, V., Frey, W., Kunkel, D., Kürten, A., Curtius, J., Sitnikov, N. M., Ulanovsky, A., and Ravegnani, F.: Evidence for ice particles in the tropical stratosphere from in-situ measurements, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 9, 6775–6792, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-9-6775-2009, 2009. a
Dinh, T., Podglajen, A., Hertzog, A., Legras, B., and Plougonven, R.: Effect of gravity wave temperature fluctuations on homogeneous ice nucleation in the tropical tropopause layer, Atmos. Chem. Phys., 16, 35–46, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-16-35-2016, 2016. a
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Short summary
We investigate the impact of the homogeneous nucleation rate on nucleation events in cirrus. As long as the slope of the rate is represented sufficiently well, the resulting ice crystal number concentrations are not crucially affected. Even a change in the prefactor over orders of magnitude does not change the results. However, the maximum supersaturation during nucleation events shows strong changes. This quantity should be used for diagnostics instead of the popular nucleation threshold.
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