More Like this

1. Microphysical processes producing high ice water contents (HIWCs) in tropical convective clouds during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign: evaluation of simulations using bulk microphysical schemes

   https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-21-6919-2021  

   Huang, Yongjie; Wu, Wei; McFarquhar, Greg M.; Wang, Xuguang; Morrison, Hugh; Ryzhkov, Alexander; Hu, Yachao; Wolde, Mengistu; Nguyen, Cuong; Schwarzenboeck, Alfons; et al (January 2021, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)

   Abstract. Regions with high ice water content (HIWC), composed of mainly small ice crystals, frequently occur over convective clouds in the tropics. Such regions can have median mass diameters (MMDs) <300 µm and equivalent radar reflectivities <20 dBZ. To explore formation mechanisms for these HIWCs, high-resolution simulations of tropical convective clouds observed on 26 May 2015 during the High Altitude Ice Crystals – High Ice Water Content (HAIC-HIWC) international field campaign based out of Cayenne, French Guiana, are conducted using the Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model with four different bulk microphysics schemes: the WRF single‐moment 6‐class microphysics scheme (WSM6), the Morrison scheme, and the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) scheme with one- and two-ice options. The simulations are evaluated against data from airborne radar and multiple cloud microphysics probes installed on the French Falcon 20 and Canadian National Research Council (NRC) Convair 580 sampling clouds at different heights. WRF simulations with different microphysics schemes generally reproduce the vertical profiles of temperature, dew-point temperature, and winds during this event compared with radiosonde data, and the coverage and evolution of this tropical convective system compared to satellite retrievals. All of the simulations overestimate the intensity and spatial extent of radar reflectivity by over 30 % above the melting layer compared to the airborne X-band radar reflectivity data. They also miss the peak of the observed ice number distribution function for 0.1<1 mm. Even though the P3 scheme has a very different approach representing ice, it does not produce greatly different total condensed water content or better comparison to other observations in this tropical convective system. Mixed-phase microphysical processes at −10 ∘C are associated with the overprediction of liquid water content in the simulations with the Morrison and P3 schemes. The ice water content at −10 ∘C increases mainly due to the collection of liquid water by ice particles, which does not increase ice particle number but increases the mass/size of ice particles and contributes to greater simulated radar reflectivity. 

   more » « less
2. Microphysical processes producing high ice water contents (HIWCs) in tropical convective clouds during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign: dominant role of secondary ice production

   https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-2365-2022  

   Huang, Yongjie; Wu, Wei; McFarquhar, Greg M.; Xue, Ming; Morrison, Hugh; Milbrandt, Jason; Korolev, Alexei V.; Hu, Yachao; Qu, Zhipeng; Wolde, Mengistu; et al (January 2022, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)

   Abstract. High ice water content (HIWC) regions in tropical deep convective clouds, composed of high concentrations of small ice crystals, were not reproduced by Weather Research and Forecasting (WRF) model simulations at 1 km horizontal grid spacing using four different bulk microphysics schemes (i.e., the WRF single‐moment 6‐class microphysics scheme (WSM6), the Morrison scheme and the Predicted Particle Properties (P3) scheme with one- and two-ice options) for conditions encountered during the High Altitude Ice Crystals (HAIC) and HIWC experiment. Instead, overestimates of radar reflectivity and underestimates of ice number concentrations were realized. To explore formation mechanisms for large numbers of small ice crystals in tropical convection, a series of quasi-idealized WRF simulations varying the model resolution, aerosol profile, and representation of secondary ice production (SIP) processes are conducted based on an observed radiosonde released at Cayenne during the HAIC-HIWC field campaign. The P3 two-ice category configuration, which has two “free” ice categories to represent all ice-phase hydrometeors, is used. Regardless of the horizontal grid spacing or aerosol profile used, without including SIP processes the model produces total ice number concentrations about 2 orders of magnitude less than observed at −10 ∘C and about an order of magnitude less than observed at −30 ∘C but slightly overestimates the total ice number concentrations at −45 ∘C. Three simulations including one of three SIP mechanisms separately (i.e., the Hallett–Mossop mechanism, fragmentation during ice–ice collisions, and shattering of freezing droplets) also do not replicate observed HIWCs, with the results of the simulation including shattering of freezing droplets most closely resembling the observations. The simulation including all three SIP processes produces HIWC regions at all temperature levels, remarkably consistent with the observations in terms of ice number concentrations and radar reflectivity, which is not replicated using the original P3 two-ice category configuration. This simulation shows that primary ice production plays a key role in generating HIWC regions at temperatures <-40 ∘C, shattering of freezing droplets dominates ice particle production in HIWC regions at temperatures between −15 and 0 ∘C during the early stage of convection, and fragmentation during ice–ice collisions dominates at temperatures between −15 and 0 ∘C during the later stage of convection and at temperatures between −40 and −20 ∘C over the whole convection period. This study confirms the dominant role of SIP processes in the formation of numerous small crystals in HIWC regions. 

   more » « less
3. Aircraft observations of gravity wave activity and turbulence in the tropical tropopause layer: prevalence, influence on cirrus clouds, and comparison with global storm-resolving models

   https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-4009-2023  

   Atlas, Rachel; Bretherton, Christopher S. (January 2023, Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics)

   Abstract. The tropical tropopause layer (TTL) is a sea of vertical motions. Convectively generated gravity waves create vertical winds on scales of a few to thousands of kilometers as they propagate in a stable atmosphere. Turbulence from gravity wave breaking, radiatively driven convection, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities stirs up the TTL on the kilometer scale. TTL cirrus clouds, which moderate the water vapor concentration in the TTL and stratosphere, form in the cold phases of large-scale (> 100 km) wave activity. It has been proposed in several modeling studies that small-scale (< 100 km) vertical motions control the ice crystal number concentration and the dehydration efficiency of TTL cirrus clouds. Here, we present the first observational evidence for this. High-rate vertical winds measured by aircraft are a valuable and underutilized tool for constraining small-scale TTL vertical wind variability, examining its impacts on TTL cirrus clouds, and evaluating atmospheric models. We use 20 Hz data from five National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) campaigns to quantify small-scale vertical wind variability in the TTL and to see how it varies with ice water content, distance from deep convective cores, and height in the TTL. We find that 1 Hz vertical winds are well represented by a normal distribution, with a standard deviation of 0.2–0.4 m s−1. Consistent with a previous observational study that analyzed two out of the five aircraft campaigns that we analyze here, we find that turbulence is enhanced over the tropical west Pacific and within 100 km of convection and is most common in the lower TTL (14–15.5 km), closer to deep convection, and in the upper TTL (15.5–17 km), further from deep convection. An algorithm to classify turbulence and long-wavelength (5 km < λ < 100 km) and short-wavelength (λ < 5 km) gravity wave activity during level flight legs is applied to data from the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX). The most commonly sampled conditions are (1) a quiescent atmosphere with negligible small-scale vertical wind variability, (2) long-wavelength gravity wave activity (LW GWA), and (3) LW GWA with turbulence. Turbulence rarely occurs in the absence of gravity wave activity. Cirrus clouds with ice crystal number concentrations exceeding 20 L−1 and ice water content exceeding 1 mg m−3 are rare in a quiescent atmosphere but about 20 times more likely when there is gravity wave activity and 50 times more likely when there is also turbulence, confirming the results of the aforementioned modeling studies. Our observational analysis shows that small-scale gravity waves strongly influence the ice crystal number concentration and ice water content within TTL cirrus clouds. Global storm-resolving models have recently been run with horizontal grid spacing between 1 and 10 km, which is sufficient to resolve some small-scale gravity wave activity. We evaluate simulated vertical wind spectra (10–100 km) from four global storm-resolving simulations that have horizontal grid spacing of 3–5 km with aircraft observations from ATTREX. We find that all four models have too little resolved vertical wind at horizontal wavelengths between 10 and 100 km and thus too little small-scale gravity wave activity, although the bias is much less pronounced in global SAM than in the other models. We expect that deficient small-scale gravity wave activity significantly limits the realism of simulated ice microphysics in these models and that improved representation requires moving to finer horizontal and vertical grid spacing. 

   more » « less
4. Cloud Microphysical Properties based on Airborne In Situ Observations and Evaluation of a Weather Forecasting Model and a Global Climate Model

   https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.31979/etd.7855-fqvh  

   D'Alessandro, John (August 2018, Master’s theses directories)

   Global cloud coverage has a substantial impact on local and global radiative budgets. It is necessary to correctly represent clouds in numerical weather models to improve both weather and climate predictions. This study evaluates in situ airborne observations of cloud microphysical properties and compares results with the Weather Research and Forecasting model (WRF) and Community Atmosphere Model version 5 (CAM5). Dynamical conditions producing supersaturated conditions with respect to ice at high altitudes in regions diagnosed by convective activity are explored using observations taken from the Deep Convective Clouds and Chemistry (DC3) campaign, and results are compared with simulated data from WRF. The WRF analysis tests multiple cloud microphysics schemes and finds the model requires much stronger updrafts to initiate large magnitudes of ice supersaturation (ISS) relative to observations. This is primarily due to the microphysics schemes over-predicting ice particle number concentrations (Ncice), which rapidly deplete the available water vapor. The frequency of different cloud phases and the distribution of relative humidity (RH) over the Southern Ocean is explored using in situ airborne observations taken from the O2/N2 Ratio and CO2 Airborne Southern Ocean Study (ORCAS) and compared with simulated data from CAM5. The CAM5 simulations produce comparable distributions of RH in clear-sky conditions at warmer temperatures (>-20°C). However, simulations fail to capture high frequencies of clear-sky ISS at colder temperatures (< 40°C). In addition, CAM5 underestimates the frequency of subsaturated conditions within ice phase clouds from -40°‒0°C. 

   more » « less
5. The Life Cycle and Net Radiative Effect of Tropical Anvil Clouds

   https://doi.org/10.1029/2018MS001484  

   Hartmann, Dennis L.; Gasparini, Blaž; Berry, Sara E.; Blossey, Peter N. (December 2018, Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems)

   Abstract We explore the importance of the life cycle of detrained tropical anvil clouds in producing a weak net cloud radiative effect (NCRE) by tropical convective systems. We simulate a horizontally homogeneous elevated ice cloud in a 2‐D framework using the System for Atmospheric Modeling cloud‐resolving model. The initially thick cloud produces a negative NCRE, which is later canceled by a positive NCRE as the cloud thins and rises. Turning off interactive cloud radiation reveals that cloud radiative heating and in‐cloud convection are fundamental in driving net radiative neutrality. In‐cloud convection acts to thin initially thick anvil clouds and loft and maintain thin cirrus. The maintenance of anvil clouds is tied to the recycling of water vapor and cloud ice through sublimation, nucleation, and deposition as air parcels circulate vertically within the cloud layer. Without interactive radiation, the cloud sediments and sublimates away, producing a large negative NCRE. The specification of cloud microphysics substantially influences the cloud's behavior and life cycle , but the tendency of the life cycle to produce compensating cloud radiative effects is robust to substantial changes in the microphysics. Our study shows that small‐scale processes within upper level ice clouds likely have a strong influence on the NCRE associated with tropical convective cloud systems. 

   more » « less