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Radiative Influences on Glaciation Time-Scales in Mixed-Phase Clouds

Radiative Influences on Glaciation Time-Scales in Mixed-Phase Clouds. Zachary Lebo, Nathanial Johnson, and Jerry Harrington Penn State University Acknowledgements: DOE-ARM and Dennis Lamb for many useful discussions. Why Can Liquid and Ice Persist in Mixed-Phase Clouds?.

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Radiative Influences on Glaciation Time-Scales in Mixed-Phase Clouds

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  1. Radiative Influences on Glaciation Time-Scales in Mixed-Phase Clouds Zachary Lebo, Nathanial Johnson, and Jerry Harrington Penn State University Acknowledgements: DOE-ARM and Dennis Lamb for many useful discussions.

  2. Why Can Liquid and Ice Persist in Mixed-Phase Clouds? Previous work has shown: • Cloud tops can maintain narrow liquid layers if ice crystals remain small and updrafts are sufficiently strong (Rauber and Tokay, 1991) • It is possible to maintain a mix of liquid and ice during ascent (Tremblay et al., 1996) • Liquid topped arctic clouds that precipitate ice are possible if ice nuclei concentrations are small (Pinto, 1998, Harrington et al., 1999) and if ice nuclei are removed through sedimentation (Harrington and Olsson, 2001, Morrison et al., 2005).

  3. Glaciation Time-Scales • Hence, time-scalefor complete glaciation of mixed-phase clouds is important and depends on (at least): • Ice concentration and updraft velocity • Since radiation affects the growth of drops, is there a similar influence on the Bergeron process? 160 min ~ 2.6 hrs 16 min 1.6 min From Korolev and Isaac (2003)

  4. Radiatively Modified Ice Growth • Method is that of Korolev and Isaac (2003) but add the radiative term for the growth of ice: Radiative Effect = Ed • Start with a simple box model • Integrate above equation numerically until a fixed amount of cloud liquid water content (LWC) is depleted.

  5. Computing Radiative Influence • Use simple, static adiabatic model of stratiform arctic cloud. • Solar (SW) and infrared (LW) radiative heating computed via two-stream model(Harrington and Olsson, 2001)

  6. Radiative Heating/Cooling of Crystals Ed At Cloud Top Plate Crystals • Ed easily computed at each vertical level within the idealized cloud. • LW Cooling: Increases rapidly while SW Heating increases more slowly with size. • Net Effect: LW dominates at small sizes with cross-over to net heating at large sizes

  7. Radiative Influences on Ice Supersaturation • Cloud Top: Radiative cooling dominates, sui increases to over 30% from ~ 15% • Mid Cloud: SW heating dominates decreasing sui to less than 15%. • When SW Heating becomes large enough  Crystals will actually sublimate Crystal Sublimation Crystal Growth Plate Crystals Ni = 1 L-1 Ttop = -15 C q0 = 450

  8. Radiative Influence on Glaciation Time-Scale • No Radiation: Results similar to Korolev and Issac. • LW Cooling: Drastic decrease in glaciation time • Positive feedback: Larger crystals, more cooling, etc. • SW Heating: Reduces LW effect at cloud top. Initial LWC: 0.1 g m-3 Ni = 1 L-1 Plate Crystals

  9. Radiative Influence on Glaciation Time-Scale • LW Cooling drops off rapidly. • 100 m below cloud top glaciation time-scales not at strongly impacted. • Mid-Cloud: Since SW heating dominates, glaciation does not occur. • Crystals grow to radiatively limited sizes. Initial LWC: 0.1 g m-3 Ni = 1 L-1 Plate Crystals

  10. Glaciation Time-Scale: Fixed Rates No Radiation • Crystals grow too large in box model • Fix ice growth rates at a particular size • Small crystals, glaciation time is long  radiative influences don’t matter • Larger crystals, glaciation times shorter (< 100min) so radiative influences quite important.

  11. Concluding Remarks • Simple box model calculations suggest that radiative heating and cooling may substantially influence glaciation times. • LW cooling at cloud top may enhance crystal growth • SW heating (even when weak) may substantially increase mixed-phase cloud lifetimes (as long as q0 > 750) • Computations with bin microphysical model tend to corroborate these results. • Next plan to incorporate into parcel models, and LES, to test radiative influences on more realistically simulated clouds.

  12. Stratiform Arctic Mixed-Phase Persistence LES-Derived Water Paths • In the Arctic: Mixed-phase clouds occur throughout the year. • Ice nuclei ice concentration (& size) Important for mixed-phase longevity(Pinto, 1998; Harrington et al., 1999; Morrison et al., 2005). M-PACE Observations

  13. Radiative Influence on Glaciation Time-Scale Cloud Top • LW Cooling andSW Heating using spheres: Results similar to those for plates. Spheres Initial LWC: 0.1 g m-3 Ni = 1 L-1

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