Articles | Volume 24, issue 18
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-10245-2024
© Author(s) 2024. This work is distributed under the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Glaciation of mixed-phase clouds: insights from bulk model and bin-microphysics large-eddy simulation informed by laboratory experiment
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- Final revised paper (published on 16 Sep 2024)
- Preprint (discussion started on 22 Apr 2024)
Interactive discussion
Status: closed
Comment types: AC – author | RC – referee | CC – community | EC – editor | CEC – chief editor
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- RC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-1140', Anonymous Referee #1, 09 May 2024
- RC2: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-1140', Anonymous Referee #2, 16 May 2024
- AC1: 'Comment on egusphere-2024-1140', Aaron Wang, 03 Jul 2024
Peer review completion
AR – Author's response | RR – Referee report | ED – Editor decision | EF – Editorial file upload
AR by Aaron Wang on behalf of the Authors (03 Jul 2024)
Author's response
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ED: Publish as is (10 Jul 2024) by Greg McFarquhar
AR by Aaron Wang on behalf of the Authors (25 Jul 2024)
This is the review of the manuscript entitled “Glaciation of Mixed-Phase Clouds: Insights from Bulk Model and Bin-Microphysics Large-Eddy Simulation Informed by Laboratory Experiment” by Wang et al.
This study aims to advance our understanding of mixed-phase clouds using two different modeling approaches to reproduce laboratory experiments conducted in the Pi cloud chamber. Specifically, it is aimed to better understand the theoretically predicted glaciation threshold while the cloud is subsaturated with respect to liquid water. In other words, when is a cloud of mixed-phase type or solely consisting of ice. A bulk scalar mixing model and a large-eddy simulation (LES) with bin microphysics are applied to the Pi chamber studies to examine cloud glaciation. The former model approach allows for complete cloud glaciation while the latter one does not due to the continuous liquid droplet production in the warmer region of the cloud chamber.
This manuscript was an enjoyable read. The chosen approach/methods and execution seem to be sound. The topic fits within the journal’s science areas. I have mostly minor, clarifying, and technical comments and support publication of this work.
Minor comments:
Line 105-110: Somehow equations, variables, and text are not consistent. “N” is not defined. There is no subscript “p”. This is confusing since one reads first the equations; then to rethink subscripts could be cumbersome.
Line 140-142: This is a repetition of line 91.
Line 180: In this equation we have small “n_i”. Is this the same as the capital “N_i” above?
Line 182: Please elaborate what you mean with “s_1,0 is the initial supersaturation of liquid without aerosols”? Is it the supersaturation with respect to liquid water? This would be the case with either/or aerosols? What do you mean with “without aerosols”.
Line 210-213: The first sentence “Without the replenishment from droplet evaporation, the water vapor tends towards saturation over ice more rapidly…” is not wrong but likely confusing. The following sentence clarifies the situation a bit. Did you mean “Without the replenishment from droplet evaporation, the water vapor is more rapidly depleted, thus reaching quicker saturation,…”?
Line 213-215: I do not readily see in Fig. 2h how the integral radius for glaciation predicted by Korolev and Mazin (2003) matches those predicted by the bulk model. Somehow information about N_i has to be given in this discussion? The lines intersect but what does this mean?
Line 249: I cannot see a decrease in the droplet number concentration after 20 minutes in Fig. 4d. After 30 mins there seems to be a brief dip in concentration.
Line 293-296: There is a lot going in this section on which is difficult to follow. Why does the temperature increase in response to the increased ice concentration? With increasing temperature water mixing ratio should increase since e_l increases?
Do you mean a decrease in the supersaturation with respect to liquid water?
“causing the size of the ice crystals to diminish”: If more ice crystal form, supersaturation decreases and resulting ice crystals may be smaller compared to a case with constant supersaturation. However, once ice crystals formed, why should the ice crystal size decrease?
Technical corrections:
Line 105: Missing “respectively”?
Line 124: The subscript for Greek letter Xi: It looks like “1” but should be “l” or “i”?
Line 303: Formatting of units.