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Investigating the Evolution of Ice Particle Distributions in Mixed-Phase Clouds

Technical Report ·
DOI:https://doi.org/10.2172/1773361· OSTI ID:1773361
 [1];  [2];  [3];  [1]
  1. State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States)
  2. Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States)
  3. National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
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The goal of this project is to conduct modeling studies that focus on the processes that control the macrophysical and microphysical properties of mixed phase clouds, such as the partitioning of water phase and the processes that promote precipitation and govern cloud evolution. The process specific to this project is the collection of vapor-grown non-spherical ice crystals and snow hydrometeors through aggregation, as uncertainty remains in the evolution of particle properties as they aggregate. To aid in the understanding of ice particle evolution from pristine monomers to aggregates, the aggregation process is depicted using an offline simulator for ice crystal collection, namely the Ice Particle and Aggregate Simulator (IPAS). Of particular interest in the context of this work is the influence of monomer habit on aggregation and subsequently on cloud microphysical structure. This overarching goal has been completed by conducting modeling studies using the Adaptive Habit Model (AHM) in mixed-phase cloud systems, which predicts and evolves ice shape. While the AHM is designed with physical detail in mind, those details may be lost on larger spatial or temporal scales. Hence, how the contributions of particle growth and collection control the evolution of ice particle size distributions (PSDs) and redistribute mass within the cloud and at the surface has been investigated. Analyses include microphysical sensitivity investigations that inform on future improvement capabilities of microphysical parameterizations in larger scale models. Further, improvements of processes within ice clouds have resulted from this work as the environmental processes controlling ice crystal growth, microphysical processes, and precipitation are inherently integrated within this investigation.

Research Organization:
State Univ. of New York (SUNY), Albany, NY (United States); Univ. of Wyoming, Laramie, WY (United States); National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR), Boulder, CO (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC)
DOE Contract Number:
SC0016354
OSTI ID:
1773361
Report Number(s):
DOE-UALB-0016354
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (9)

Linking large-scale circulation patterns to low-cloud properties journal January 2020
Broadening of Modeled Cloud Droplet Spectra Using Bin Microphysics in an Eulerian Spatial Domain journal November 2018
Marine Boundary Layer Clouds Associated with Coastally Trapped Disturbances: Observations and Model Simulations journal September 2019
A New Perspective on Coastally Trapped Disturbances Using Data from the Satellite Era journal April 2019
Microphysical and Dynamical Effects of Mixed-Phase Hydrometeors in Convective Storms Using a Bin Microphysics Model: Melting journal November 2019
The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates journal August 2019
Impacts of Latent Energy and Snow Fall Speed on a Wintertime Midlatitude Cyclone journal October 2020
A New Method for Ice–Ice Aggregation in the Adaptive Habit Model journal January 2021
The Ice Particle and Aggregate Simulator (IPAS). Part I: Extracting Dimensional Properties of Ice–Ice Aggregates for Microphysical Parameterization journal June 2019

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