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Title: Scaling of an Atmospheric Model to Simulate Turbulence and Cloud Microphysics in the Pi Chamber

Journal Article · · Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems
ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [2]; ORCiD logo [3];  [1]; ORCiD logo [1]; ORCiD logo [4]; ORCiD logo [1]
  1. Michigan Technological Univ., Houghton, MI (United States)
  2. Pacific Northwest National Lab. (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States)
  3. Brookhaven National Lab. (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
  4. Univ. of Utah, Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
+ Show Author Affiliations

The Pi Cloud Chamber offers a unique opportunity to study aerosol–cloud microphysics interactions in a steady-state, turbulent environment. In this work, an atmospheric large eddy simulation (LES) model with spectral bin microphysics is scaled down to simulate these interactions, allowing comparison with experimental results. A simple scalar flux budget model is developed and used to explore the effect of sidewalls on the bulk mixing temperature, water vapor mixing ratio, and supersaturation. The scaled simulation and the simple scalar flux budget model produce comparable bulk mixing scalar values. The LES dynamics results are compared with particle image velocimetry measurements of turbulent kinetic energy, energy dissipation rates and large scale oscillation frequencies from the cloud chamber. These simulated results match quantitatively to experimental results. Finally, with the bin microphysics included the LES is able to simulate steady-state cloud conditions and broadening of the cloud droplet size distributions, as observed in the experiments. The results further suggest that collision-coalescence does not contribute significantly to this broadening. This opens a path for further detailed intercomparison of laboratory and simulation results for model validation and exploration of specific physical processes.

Research Organization:
Pacific Northwest National Laboratory (PNNL), Richland, WA (United States); Brookhaven National Laboratory (BNL), Upton, NY (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE; USDOE Office of Science (SC), Biological and Environmental Research (BER); National Science Foundation (NSF)
Grant/Contract Number:
AC05-76RL01830; AC05-76RLO1830; SC0012704
OSTI ID:
1560175
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1560177; OSTI ID: 1561247; OSTI ID: 1572498
Report Number(s):
PNNL-SA-142731; BNL-212056-2019-JAAM
Journal Information:
Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems, Vol. 11, Issue 7; ISSN 1942-2466
Publisher:
American Geophysical Union (AGU)Copyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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