Articles | Volume 26, issue 15
https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-11371-2026
© Author(s) 2026. 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-26-11371-2026
© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Research article
| 
12 Aug 2026
Research article |
| 12 Aug 2026
| 12 Aug 2026
Impacts of secondary ice production on the microphysics and dynamics of deep convective clouds in different environments
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Julian Meusel
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Behrooz Keshtgar
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Gabriella Wallentin
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Christian Barthlott
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
Sachin Patade
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India
Sonali Shete
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India
Thara Prabhakaran
Indian Institute of Tropical Meteorology, Ministry of Earth Sciences, Pune, India
Romain Fievet
Max Planck Institute for Meteorology, Hamburg, Germany
Declan Finney
National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Alan Blyth
National Centre for Atmospheric Science, University of Leeds, Leeds, United Kingdom
Corinna Hoose
Institute of Meteorology and Climate Research Troposphere Research, Karlsruhe Institute of Technology, Karlsruhe, Germany
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Large-scale stratiform clouds play a decisive role in the Earth's radiation budget and precipitation patterns, yet global models historically exhibit major biases in their simulations. Our study addresses these gaps by implementing physically-based representations of secondary ice production pathways and advanced aerosol activation schemes, including bin-bulk microphysics. These improvements enable the robust simulation of both cloud droplet and ice formation.
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K. S. Apsara, Aravindakshan Jayakumar, Theethai Jacob Anurose, Saji Mohandas, Paul R. Field, Thara Prabhakaran, Mahen Konwar, and Vijayapurapu Srinivasa Prasad
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Gary Lloyd, Alan Blyth, Zhiqiang Cui, Thomas Choularton, Keith Bower, Martin Gallagher, Michael Flynn, Nicholas Marsden, Leif Denby, and Peter Gallimore
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Mahen Konwar, Benjamin Werden, Edward C. Fortner, Sudarsan Bera, Mercy Varghese, Subharthi Chowdhuri, Kurt Hibert, Philip Croteau, John Jayne, Manjula Canagaratna, Neelam Malap, Sandeep Jayakumar, Shivsai A. Dixit, Palani Murugavel, Duncan Axisa, Darrel Baumgardner, Peter F. DeCarlo, Doug R. Worsnop, and Thara Prabhakaran
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In a warm cloud seeding experiment hygroscopic particles are released to alter cloud processes to induce early raindrops. During the Cloud–Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment, airborne mini aerosol mass spectrometers analyse the particles on which clouds form. The seeded clouds showed higher concentrations of chlorine and potassium, the oxidizing agents of flares. Small cloud droplet concentrations increased, and seeding particles were detected in deep cloud depths.
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A narrow rainfall belt in the tropics is an important feature for large-scale circulations and the global water cycle. The accurate simulation of this rainfall feature has been a long-standing problem, with the reasons behind that unclear. We present a novel diagnostic tool that allows us to disentangle processes important for rainfall, which changes due to modifications in model. Using our diagnostic tool, one can potentially identify sources of uncertainty in weather and climate models.
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Nair Krishnan Kala, Narayana Sarma Anand, Mohanan R. Manoj, Srinivasan Prasanth, Harshavardhana S. Pathak, Thara Prabhakaran, Pramod D. Safai, Krishnaswamy K. Moorthy, and Sreedharan K. Satheesh
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Zhiqiang Cui, Alan Blyth, Ralph Burton, Sandrine Bony, Steven Böing, Alan Gadian, and Leif Denby
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1999, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2023-1999, 2023
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Cumulus clouds near Barbados can influence how much heat and energy reaches the Earth's surface. A cluster of clouds resembling a flower is presented. Satellite images, dropsonde data, and weather data are used to understand how this cloud system developed. A significant feature was the appearance of a large area of rain at the centre of the cloud system during its later stages. The paper also studied the environmental conditions around the cloud system.
Annika Oertel, Annette K. Miltenberger, Christian M. Grams, and Corinna Hoose
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 8553–8581, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8553-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-8553-2023, 2023
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Warm conveyor belts (WCBs) are cloud- and precipitation-producing airstreams in extratropical cyclones that are important for the large-scale flow and cloud radiative forcing. We analyze cloud formation processes during WCB ascent in a two-moment microphysics scheme. Quantification of individual diabatic heating rates shows the importance of condensation, vapor deposition, rain evaporation, melting, and cloud-top radiative cooling for total heating and WCB-related potential vorticity structure.
Sylvia Sullivan, Behrooz Keshtgar, Nicole Albern, Elzina Bala, Christoph Braun, Anubhav Choudhary, Johannes Hörner, Hilke Lentink, Georgios Papavasileiou, and Aiko Voigt
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 3535–3551, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3535-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-3535-2023, 2023
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Clouds absorb and re-emit infrared radiation from Earth's surface and absorb and reflect incoming solar radiation. As a result, they change atmospheric temperature gradients that drive large-scale circulation. To better simulate this circulation, we study how the radiative heating and cooling from clouds depends on model settings like grid spacing; whether we describe convection approximately or exactly; and the level of detail used to describe small-scale processes, or microphysics, in clouds.
Julia Thomas, Andrew Barrett, and Corinna Hoose
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 1987–2002, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1987-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-1987-2023, 2023
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We study the sensitivity of rain formation processes during a heavy-rainfall event over mountains to changes in temperature and pollution. Total rainfall increases by 2 % K−1, and a 6 % K−1 increase is found at the highest altitudes, caused by a mixed-phase seeder–feeder mechanism (frozen cloud particles melt and grow further as they fall through a liquid cloud layer). In a cleaner atmosphere this process is enhanced. Thus the risk of severe rainfall in mountains may increase in the future.
Behrooz Keshtgar, Aiko Voigt, Corinna Hoose, Michael Riemer, and Bernhard Mayer
Weather Clim. Dynam., 4, 115–132, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-115-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-4-115-2023, 2023
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Forecasting extratropical cyclones is challenging due to many physical factors influencing their behavior. One such factor is the impact of heating and cooling of the atmosphere by the interaction between clouds and radiation. In this study, we show that cloud-radiative heating (CRH) increases the intensity of an idealized cyclone and affects its predictability. We find that CRH affects the cyclone mostly via increasing latent heat release and subsequent changes in the synoptic circulation.
Takumi Matsunobu, Christian Keil, and Christian Barthlott
Weather Clim. Dynam., 3, 1273–1289, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1273-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/wcd-3-1273-2022, 2022
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This study quantifies the impact of poorly constrained parameters used to represent aerosol–cloud–precipitation interactions on precipitation and cloud forecasts associated with uncertainties in input atmospheric states. Uncertainties in these parameters have a non-negligible impact on daily precipitation amount and largely change the amount of cloud. The comparison between different weather situations reveals that the impact becomes more important when convection is triggered by local effects.
Sachin Patade, Deepak Waman, Akash Deshmukh, Ashok Kumar Gupta, Arti Jadav, Vaughan T. J. Phillips, Aaron Bansemer, Jacob Carlin, and Alexander Ryzhkov
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 12055–12075, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12055-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-12055-2022, 2022
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This modeling study focuses on the role of multiple groups of primary biological aerosol particles as ice nuclei on cloud properties and precipitation. This was done by implementing a more realistic scheme for biological ice nucleating particles in the aerosol–cloud model. Results show that biological ice nucleating particles have a limited role in altering the ice phase and precipitation in deep convective clouds.
Christian Barthlott, Amirmahdi Zarboo, Takumi Matsunobu, and Christian Keil
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 10841–10860, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10841-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-10841-2022, 2022
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The relevance of microphysical and land-surface uncertainties for convective-scale predictability is evaluated with a combined-perturbation strategy in realistic convection-resolving simulations. We find a large ensemble spread which demonstrates that the uncertainties investigated here and, in particular, their collective effect are highly relevant for quantitative precipitation forecasting of summertime convection in central Europe.
Jonas K. F. Jakobsson, Deepak B. Waman, Vaughan T. J. Phillips, and Thomas Bjerring Kristensen
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 6717–6748, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6717-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-6717-2022, 2022
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Long-lived cold-layer clouds at subzero temperatures are observed to be remarkably persistent in their generation of ice particles and snow precipitation. There is uncertainty about why this is so. This motivates the present lab study to observe the long-term ice-nucleating ability of aerosol samples from the real troposphere. Time dependence of their ice nucleation is observed to be weak in lab experiments exposing the samples to isothermal conditions for up to about 10 h.
Julia Bruckert, Gholam Ali Hoshyaripour, Ákos Horváth, Lukas O. Muser, Fred J. Prata, Corinna Hoose, and Bernhard Vogel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 3535–3552, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3535-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-3535-2022, 2022
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Volcanic emissions endanger aviation and public health and also influence weather and climate. Forecasting the volcanic-plume dispersion is therefore a critical yet sophisticated task. Here, we show that explicit treatment of volcanic-plume dynamics and eruption source parameters significantly improves volcanic-plume dispersion forecasts. We further demonstrate the lofting of the SO2 due to a heating of volcanic particles by sunlight with major implications for volcanic aerosol research.
Christian Barthlott, Amirmahdi Zarboo, Takumi Matsunobu, and Christian Keil
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 2153–2172, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2153-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2153-2022, 2022
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The relative impact of cloud condensation nuclei (CCN) concentrations and the shape parameter of the cloud droplet size distribution is evaluated in realistic convection-resolving simulations. We find that an increase in the shape parameter can produce almost as large a variation in precipitation as a CCN increase from maritime to polluted conditions. The choice of the shape parameter may be more important than previously thought for determining cloud radiative characteristics.
Zhiqiang Cui, Alan Blyth, Yahui Huang, Gary Lloyd, Thomas Choularton, Keith Bower, Paul Field, Rachel Hawker, and Lindsay Bennett
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 1649–1667, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1649-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-1649-2022, 2022
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High concentrations of ice particles were observed at temperatures greater than about –8 C. The default scheme of the secondary ice production cannot explain the high concentrations. Relaxing the conditions for secondary ice production or considering dust aerosol alone is insufficient to produce the observed amount of ice particles. It is likely that multi-thermals play an important role in producing very high concentrations of secondary ice particles in some tropical clouds.
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Short summary
We use a weather model with aircraft and satellite data to study ice multiplication in thunderstorms across India, Mexico, Oklahoma, and the tropical Atlantic. This process can create spurious ice particles in clouds, thereby increasing latent and radiative heating that strengthens stratiform ascents in storms and extends anvil-cloud lifetimes. These results improve our understanding of how small-scale ice processes influence large-scale storm behavior and rainfall patterns.
We use a weather model with aircraft and satellite data to study ice multiplication in...
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