Measurement report: Observational analysis of mode-dependent fog droplet size distribution evolution and improved parameterization using segmented gamma and lognormal fitting

Zhang, Jingwen; Liu, Xiaoli; An, Zhenya; Lv, Jingjing; Xu, Dan

doi:10.5194/acp-26-3489-2026

Articles | Volume 26, issue 5

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3489-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3489-2026

© Author(s) 2026. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.

Articles | Volume 26, issue 5

Measurement report

|

06 Mar 2026

Measurement report |

| 06 Mar 2026

Measurement report: Observational analysis of mode-dependent fog droplet size distribution evolution and improved parameterization using segmented gamma and lognormal fitting

Jingwen Zhang, Xiaoli Liu, Zhenya An, Jingjing Lv, and Dan Xu

Data sets

Fog Droplet Size Distribution for Fog Case 1-1, Fog Case 4, Fog Case 10, Fog Case 18 and Fog Case 20 Jingwen Zhang https://doi.org/10.5281/zenodo.18552099

ERA5 hourly data on single levels from 1940 to present Copernicus Climate Change Service https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.adbb2d47

ERA5 hourly data on pressure levels from 1940 to present Copernicus Climate Change Service https://doi.org/10.24381/cds.bd0915c6

Short summary

Fog affects human activities and regional climate, yet our understanding of it remains limited. Based on 27 fog events in Nanjing, this study shows that droplet size distributions evolve among unimodal, bimodal, and trimodal during the fog lifecycle. A new segmented fitting significantly improves the estimation of key microphysical and radiative parameters. These results improve our understanding of fog microphysics and droplet size distribution parameterizations in weather and climate models.