Skip to main content
OSTI.GOVU.S. Department of Energy Office of Scientific and Technical Information
U.S. Department of Energy
Office of Scientific and Technical Information
 

Glaciation of liquid clouds, snowfall, and reduced cloud cover at industrial aerosol hot spots

Journal Article · · Science
 [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [1];  [2];  [3];  [3];  [4];  [1];  [1];  [5];  [6];  [7];  [2];  [3];  [8];  [9];  [10]
  1. University of Tartu (Estonia)
  2. Univ. of Oxford (United Kingdom)
  3. Environment and Climate Change Canada, Toronto, ON (Canada)
  4. Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  5. University of Leeds (United Kingdom)
  6. Eidgenoessische Technische Hochschule (ETH), Zurich (Switzerland)
  7. Univ. of California, San Diego, CA (United States)
  8. Univ. of Oslo (Norway)
  9. Univ. of Helsinki (Finland)
  10. Univ. of Reading (United Kingdom)
+ Show Author Affiliations
The ability of anthropogenic aerosols to freeze supercooled cloud droplets remains debated. Here, in this work, we present observational evidence for the glaciation of supercooled liquid-water clouds at industrial aerosol hot spots at temperatures between -10° and -24°C. Compared with the nearby liquid-water clouds, shortwave reflectance was reduced by 14% and longwave radiance was increased by 4% in the glaciation-affected regions. There was an 8% reduction in cloud cover and an 18% reduction in cloud optical thickness. Additionally, daily glaciation-induced snowfall accumulations reached 15 millimeters. Glaciation events downwind of industrial aerosol hot spots indicate that anthropogenic aerosols likely serve as ice-nucleating particles. However, rare glaciation events downwind of nuclear power plants indicate that factors other than aerosol emissions may also play a role in the observed glaciation events.
Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830
OSTI ID:
2478847
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA--205704
Journal Information:
Science, Journal Name: Science Journal Issue: 6723 Vol. 386; ISSN 0036-8075
Publisher:
AAASCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

References (51)

Volcano and Ship Tracks Indicate Excessive Aerosol-Induced Cloud Water Increases in a Climate Model: CLOUD WATER RESPONSE TO AEROSOLS journal December 2017
Is Black Carbon an Unimportant Ice-Nucleating Particle in Mixed-Phase Clouds? journal April 2018
The ERA5 global reanalysis journal June 2020
Anthropogenic snowfall events in the UK: examples of urban weather modification? journal September 2009
Interaction between a natural snowfall and a cooling tower plume: An experimental study with a millimetric Doppler radar journal January 1967
Characterization of individual fly ash particles emitted from coal- and oil-fired power plants journal January 1986
Volcanic ash ice-nucleating activity can be enhanced or depressed by ash-gas interaction in the eruption plume journal December 2020
A glaciation indirect aerosol effect caused by soot aerosols journal January 2002
Measurements of heterogeneous ice nuclei in the western United States in springtime and their relation to aerosol characteristics journal January 2007
Climate impacts of ice nucleation: ICE NUCLEATION journal October 2012
Variation of Ice Nucleating Particles in the European Arctic Over the Last Centuries journal April 2019
Black Carbon Particles Do Not Matter for Immersion Mode Ice Nucleation journal June 2020
Measurements of Ice Nucleating Particles in Beijing, China journal July 2019
Bounding global aerosol radiative forcing of climate change journal November 2019
A Major Combustion Aerosol Event Had a Negligible Impact on the Atmospheric Ice‐Nucleating Particle Population journal November 2020
Diurnal Evolution of Cloud Water Responses to Aerosols journal May 2022
Meteorological Conditions Favorable for Strong Anthropogenic Aerosol Impacts on Clouds journal February 2022
Ice‐Nucleating Particles That Impact Clouds and Climate: Observational and Modeling Research Needs journal May 2022
Strong Anthropogenic Cloud Perturbations Can Persist for Multiple Days journal May 2023
Snowfall induced by a power plant plume journal June 1978
The importance of feldspar for ice nucleation by mineral dust in mixed-phase clouds journal June 2013
Ice nucleation by cellulose and its potential contribution to ice formation in clouds journal March 2015
Inadvertent climate modification due to anthropogenic lead journal April 2009
Weak average liquid-cloud-water response to anthropogenic aerosols journal July 2019
Invisible ship tracks show large cloud sensitivity to aerosol journal October 2022
Impact of vertical air motions on ice formation rate in mixed-phase cloud layers journal October 2019
Volcanic ash ice nucleation activity is variably reduced by aging in water and sulfuric acid: the effects of leaching, dissolution, and precipitation journal January 2022
Ice nucleation by particles immersed in supercooled cloud droplets journal January 2012
Predicting global atmospheric ice nuclei distributions and their impacts on climate journal June 2010
Formation and Spread of Aircraft-Induced Holes in Clouds journal June 2011
Clarifying the Dominant Sources and Mechanisms of Cirrus Cloud Formation journal May 2013
Snowfall Observations from Natural-Draft Cooling Tower Plumes journal September 1976
The Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process – Its discovery and vital importance for weather and climate [The Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen process – Its discovery and vital importance for weather and climate] journal July 2015
An Artificially Induced Local Snowfall journal July 1971
Weather Note: an Anomalous snow at oak Ridge, Tennessee journal May 1962
Aerosol Influence on Mixed-Phase Clouds in CAM-Oslo journal October 2008
The Hydrometeor Classification Algorithm for the Polarimetric WSR-88D: Description and Application to an MCS journal June 2009
Aircraft-Induced Hole Punch and Canal Clouds: Inadvertent Cloud Seeding journal June 2010
Overview of Ice Nucleating Particles journal January 2017
A Closer Look at the ABI on the GOES-R Series journal April 2017
Introducing Lightning Threat Messaging Using the GOES-16 Day Cloud Phase Distinction RGB Composite journal October 2019
Ice nucleation by ordinary Portland cement journal January 1972
Ice nucleation by combustion ash particles at conditions relevant to mixed-phase clouds journal January 2015
Not all feldspars are equal: a survey of ice nucleating properties across the feldspar group of minerals journal January 2016
Ice nucleation abilities of soot particles determined with the Horizontal Ice Nucleation Chamber journal January 2018
Coal fly ash: linking immersion freezing behavior and physicochemical particle properties journal January 2018
Ice-nucleating particle concentrations unaffected by urban air pollution in Beijing, China journal January 2018
The ice-nucleating ability of quartz immersed in water and its atmospheric importance compared to K-feldspar journal January 2019
A comprehensive characterization of ice nucleation by three different types of cellulose particles immersed in water journal January 2019
Lignin's ability to nucleate ice via immersion freezing and its stability towards physicochemical treatments and atmospheric processing journal January 2020
Clouds-Aerosols-Precipitation Satellite Analysis Tool (CAPSAT) journal January 2008

Similar Records

Aerosol indirect effects on glaciated clouds. Part 2: Sensitivity tests using solute aerosols
Journal Article · Sun May 22 20:00:00 EDT 2016 · Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society · OSTI ID:1401195
Aerosol indirect effects on glaciated clouds. Part I: Model description
Journal Article · Mon Apr 25 20:00:00 EDT 2016 · Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society · OSTI ID:1401423
Study of Mechanisms of Aerosol Indirect Effects on Glaciated Clouds: Progress during the Project (Final Technical Report)
Technical Report · Fri Oct 18 00:00:00 EDT 2013 · OSTI ID:1109347

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES