On the role of ice‐nucleating aerosol in the formation of ice particles in tropical mesoscale convective systems
Open Access
- 21 January 2017
- journal article
- research article
- Published by American Geophysical Union (AGU) in Geophysical Research Letters
- Vol. 44 (3) , 1574-1582
Abstract
Over the decades, the cloud physics community has debated the nature and role of aerosol particles in ice initiation. The present study shows that the measured concentration of ice crystals in tropical mesoscale convective systems exceeds the concentration of ice nucleating particles (INPs) by several orders of magnitude. The concentration of INPs was assessed from the measured aerosol particle concentration in the size range of 0.5 to 1 µm. The observations from this study suggest that primary ice crystals formed on INPs make only a minor contribution to the total concentration of ice crystals in tropical mesoscale convective systems. This is found by comparing the predicted INP number concentrations with in situ ice particle number concentrations. The obtained measurements suggest that ice multiplication is the likely explanation for the observed high concentrations of ice crystals in this type of convective system.Keywords
Funding Information
- NRC RAIR program
- NASA Modeling and Analysis Program
This publication has 83 references indexed in Scilit:
- Atmospheric ice nucleators active ≥ −12 °C can be quantified on PM10 filtersAtmospheric Measurement Techniques, 2012
- Aerosol concentration and size distribution measured below, in, and above cloud from the DOE G-1 during VOCALS-RExAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2012
- Predicting global atmospheric ice nuclei distributions and their impacts on climateProceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 2010
- Chemical characteristics of ice residual nuclei in anvil cirrus clouds: evidence for homogeneous and heterogeneous ice formationAtmospheric Chemistry and Physics, 2005
- African dust aerosols as atmospheric ice nucleiGeophysical Research Letters, 2003
- Spurious aerosol measurements when sampling from aircraft in the vicinity of cloudsJournal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres, 1998
- Cloud Particle Measurements in Thunderstorm Anvils and Possible Weather Threat to AviationJournal of Aircraft, 1998
- The Origin and Concentration of Ice Crystals in CloudsBulletin of the American Meteorological Society, 1985
- The Origin of Ice in Mountain Cap CloudsJournal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 1981
- The Glaciating Behavior of Small Cumulonimbus CloudsJournal of the Atmospheric Sciences, 1963