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Title: New Empirical Formulation for the Sublimational Breakup of Graupel and Dendritic Snow

Journal Article · · Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
ORCiD logo [1];  [1];  [2];  [1];  [1]
  1. a Department of Physical Geography and Ecosystem Science, University of Lund, Lund, Sweden
  2. b Earth System Laboratory, National Center for Atmospheric Research, Boulder, Colorado

Abstract Ice fragments are generated by sublimation of ice particles in subsaturated conditions in natural clouds. Conceivably, such sublimational breakup would be expected to cause ice multiplication in natural clouds. Any fragment that survives will grow to become ice precipitation that may sublimate and fragment further. As a first step toward assessing this overlooked process, a formulation is proposed for the number of ice fragments from sublimation of ice particles for an atmospheric model. This is done by amalgamating laboratory observations from previously published studies. The concept of a “sublimated mass activity spectrum” for the breakup is applied to the dataset. The number of ice fragments is determined by the relative humidity over ice and the initial size of the parent ice particles. The new formulation applies to dendritic crystals and heavily rimed particles only. Finally, a thought experiment is performed for an idealized scenario of subsaturation with in-cloud descent. Scaling analysis yields an estimate of an ice enhancement ratio of about 5 (10) within a weak deep convective downdraft of about 2 m s −1 , for an initial monodisperse population of dendritic snow (graupel) particles of 3 L −1 and 2 mm. During descent, there is a dynamic equilibrium between continual emission of fragments and their depletion by sublimation. A simplified bin microphysics parcel model exhibits this dynamical quasi equilibrium, consistent with the thought experiment. The fragments have average lifetimes of around 90 and 70 s for dendrites and graupel, respectively. Sublimational breakup is predicted to cause significant secondary ice production.

Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
NONE; SC0018967; SC0018932
OSTI ID:
1841073
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 2529439; OSTI ID: 1980912
Journal Information:
Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, Journal Name: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences Journal Issue: 1 Vol. 79; ISSN 0022-4928
Publisher:
American Meteorological SocietyCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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