Dependence of Aerosol-Droplet Partitioning on Turbulence in a Laboratory Cloud

Shawon, Abu Md; Prabhakaran, Prasanth; Kinney, Greg; Shaw, Raymond A.; Cantrell, Will

doi:10.1029/2020jd033799

Dependence of Aerosol-Droplet Partitioning on Turbulence in a Laboratory Cloud

Journal Article · Sun Feb 14 00:00:00 EST 2021 · Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/2020jd033799· OSTI ID:1774767

^[1]; ^[2]; ^[2]; Shaw, Raymond A. ^[2]; ^[2]

Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Michigan Technological University
Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States)

Activation is the first step in aerosol-cloud interactions, which have been identified as one of the principal uncertainties in Earth's climate system. Aerosol particles become cloud droplets, or activate, when the ambient saturation ratio exceeds a threshold, which depends on the particle's size and hygroscopicity. In the traditional formulation of the process, only average, uniform saturation ratios are considered. Furthermore, turbulent environments like clouds intrinsically have fluctuations around mean values in the scalar fields of temperature and water vapor concentration, which determine the saturation ratio. Through laboratory measurements, we show that these fluctuations are an important parameter that needs to be addressed to fully describe activation. Our results show, even for single-sized, chemically homogeneous aerosols, that fluctuations blur the correspondence between activation and a particle's size and chemical composition, that turbulence can increase the fraction of aerosol particles which activate, and that the activated fraction decreases monotonically as the concentration of aerosol increases. Taken together, our data demonstrate that fluctuations can have effects equivalent to the aerosol limited and updraft limited regimes, known from adiabatic parcel theory.

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Research Organization:: Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States)

Sponsoring Organization:: National Science Foundation; USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth and Environmental Systems Science Division

Grant/Contract Number:: SC0018931

OSTI ID:: 1774767

Alternate ID(s):: OSTI ID: 1786730

Journal Information:: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, Journal Name: Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres Journal Issue: 5 Vol. 126; ISSN 2169-897X

Publisher:: American Geophysical UnionCopyright Statement

Country of Publication:: United States

Language:: English

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The role of turbulent fluctuations in aerosol activation and cloud formation

Journal Article · Mon Jul 20 20:00:00 EDT 2020 · Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America · OSTI ID:1637974

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aerosol-cloud interactions
cloud
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Dependence of Aerosol-Droplet Partitioning on Turbulence in a Laboratory Cloud

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References (57)

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