Abstract
The clouds that develop in maritime or polluted environments have significant differences in their properties. A number of modeling sensitivity tests have been performed to describe the physical processes related to aerosol – cloud interactions at various stages of cloud development. Precipitation amounts and cloud structure were found to be very sensitive to changes in the size distribution and number concentrations of the aerosols. Certain combinations of CCN/IN properties and atmospheric properties may lead to significant enhancement of convection and precipitation. These interactions are not linear and it is the synergetic effects between meteorology and atmospheric chemistry that are responsible for the variation of precipitation.
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Questioner Name: ST Rao
Q: You have presented the role of precipitation in enhancing and suppression of precipitation. Is the reversed process (scavenging of pollution) well represented and what are the open points?
A: Scavenging of aerosols occurs through the aqueous phase and not only through nucleation. In aqueous phase the processes involved are not fully understood yet. For example, in water droplets there are several aerosol particles diluted or partially diluted (different size and composition). When the droplets evaporate, the particles left have different physical (size, shape) and chemical (composition, solubility) characteristics. These particles are involved later in nucleation processes and the results are different (e.g. acting rather as GCCN). In general, we need to understand these mechanisms quite well and try to further improve the models.
Questioner Name: Talat Odman
Q: What kind of experimental measurements do you use to evaluate evaluate/validate your models? What data do you need to further improve understanding? Do you have any plans to collect such data?
A: Experimental data sets for such evaluations are always needed. This is especially true in aerosol-radiation-cloud parameterization. Such data sets are not easily found. Measurements related to CCN activation, aerosol characterization (physical and chemical properties) and of course cloud droplet spectra are needed at the most. For ice nucleation (IN) such data are even more difficult to obtain. Most of the experimental data for IN are from cloud chamber experiments. CCN, IN and cloud droplet measurements are usually airborne and difficult to obtain. Satellite data are useful to a certain degree and for some cases. Obviously, conventional observations (e.g. wind, temperature, moisture profiles) are extremely useful. Currently we look for existing data sets from past airborne experimental campaigns. A CCN measurement campaign is organized by my Group in Saudi Arabia next year.
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Solomos, S., Kallos, G., Kushta, J., Nenes, A., Barahona, D., Bartsotas, N. (2014). The Role of Aerosol Properties on Cloud Nucleation Processes. In: Steyn, D., Builtjes, P., Timmermans, R. (eds) Air Pollution Modeling and its Application XXII. NATO Science for Peace and Security Series C: Environmental Security. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5577-2_5
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-007-5577-2_5
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