Herbert, RJ, Murray, BJ orcid.org/0000-0002-8198-8131, Dobbie, JSE et al. (1 more author) (2015) Sensitivity of liquid clouds to homogenous freezing parameterizations. Geophysical Research Letters, 42 (5). pp. 1599-1605. ISSN 0094-8276
Abstract
Water droplets in some clouds can supercool to temperatures where homogeneous ice nucleation becomes the dominant freezing mechanism. In many cloud resolving and mesoscale models, it is assumed that homogeneous ice nucleation in water droplets only occurs below some threshold temperature typically set at −40°C. However, laboratory measurements show that there is a finite rate of nucleation at warmer temperatures. In this study we use a parcel model with detailed microphysics to show that cloud properties can be sensitive to homogeneous ice nucleation as warm as −30°C. Thus, homogeneous ice nucleation may be more important for cloud development, precipitation rates, and key cloud radiative parameters than is often assumed. Furthermore, we show that cloud development is particularly sensitive to the temperature dependence of the nucleation rate. In order to better constrain the parameterization of homogeneous ice nucleation laboratory measurements are needed at both high (>−35°C) and low (<−38°C) temperatures.
Metadata
Item Type: | Article |
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Authors/Creators: |
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Editors: |
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Copyright, Publisher and Additional Information: | © 2015 The Authors. This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited. |
Keywords: | homogeneous nucleation; ice nucleation; cloud glaciation; droplet freezing; mixed-phase clouds; cloud ice |
Dates: |
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Institution: | The University of Leeds |
Academic Units: | The University of Leeds > Faculty of Environment (Leeds) > School of Earth and Environment (Leeds) > Inst for Climate & Atmos Science (ICAS) (Leeds) |
Depositing User: | Symplectic Publications |
Date Deposited: | 18 May 2015 11:57 |
Last Modified: | 23 Jun 2023 21:45 |
Published Version: | http://dx.doi.org/10.1002/2014GL062729 |
Status: | Published |
Publisher: | American Geophysical Union |
Refereed: | Yes |
Identification Number: | 10.1002/2014GL062729 |
Open Archives Initiative ID (OAI ID): | oai:eprints.whiterose.ac.uk:84491 |
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