Laboratory Measurements of Cloud Scavenging of Interstitial Aerosol in a Turbulent Environment (Final Technical Report)
- Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States); Michigan Technological University
- Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States)
The link between aerosol particles and clouds is well established. Every cloud droplet forms on a preexisting particle; clouds are the primary removal mechanism for aerosol particles with diameters in the range of 0.1 to 1 micrometer. Traditionally, those connections have been considered in the absence of the chaotic air motions (turbulence) that are ubiquitous in Earth’s atmosphere. Recent work at Michigan Tech indicates that turbulent fluctuations in temperature and water vapor, which couple aerosols and cloud droplets, play an important role in whether particles grow to the size of cloud droplets and scavenging by diffusion. In this project, we measured, in a turbulent environment, the rate at which aerosol particles are incorporated into cloud droplets through both these processes, which Michigan Tech's turbulent cloud chamber enables because we can sustain a mixing cloud almost indefinitely.
- Research Organization:
- Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States)
- Sponsoring Organization:
- USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER). Earth & Environmental Systems Science (EESS)
- Contributing Organization:
- Max Planck Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization
- DOE Contract Number:
- SC0018931
- OSTI ID:
- 1878729
- Report Number(s):
- DOE-MTU-18931
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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