This paper examines the controls on supercooled liquid water content (SLWC) and drop number concentrations (
This study investigates the evolution of temperature and lifetime of evaporating, supercooled cloud droplets considering initial droplet radius (
Cloud droplet temperature plays an important role in fundamental cloud processes like droplet growth and decay, activation of ice-nucleating particles, and determination of radiative parameters like refractive indices of water droplets. Near cloud boundaries such as cloud tops, dry air mixes with cloudy air exposing droplets to environments with low relative humidities. This study examines how the temperature of a cloud droplet that is supercooled (i.e., has an initial temperature < 0°C) evolves in these subsaturated environments. Results show that when supercooled cloud droplets evaporate near cloud boundaries, their temperatures can be several degrees Celsius lower than the surrounding drier environment. The implications of this additional cooling of droplets near cloud edges on ice particle formation are discussed.
- NSF-PAR ID:
- 10468778
- Publisher / Repository:
- American Meteorological Society
- Date Published:
- Journal Name:
- Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences
- Volume:
- 80
- Issue:
- 10
- ISSN:
- 0022-4928
- Format(s):
- Medium: X Size: p. 2481-2501
- Size(s):
- ["p. 2481-2501"]
- Sponsoring Org:
- National Science Foundation
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