4.6 Article

Aerosol-Cloud-Precipitation Interactions in a Closed-cell and Non-homogenous MBL Stratocumulus Cloud

Journal

ADVANCES IN ATMOSPHERIC SCIENCES
Volume 39, Issue 12, Pages 2107-2123

Publisher

SCIENCE PRESS
DOI: 10.1007/s00376-022-2013-6

Keywords

maritime aerosol; cloud and drizzle properties; coalescence-scavenging effect of the sub-cloud aerosol and CCN; and aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions

Funding

  1. U.S. Department of Energy (DOE) Office of Energy Research, Office of Health and Environmental Research, and Environmental Sciences Division
  2. NSF [AGS-2031750, AGS-2031751]
  3. Enabling Aerosol-cloud interactions at GLobal convection-permitting scalES (EAGLES) - U.S. Department of Energy, Office of Science, Office of Biological and Environmental Research, Earth System Modeling program [74358]
  4. University of Arizona
  5. Department of Energy by Battelle Memorial Institute [DE-AC05-76 RL01830]

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A closed-cell marine stratocumulus case during the ACE-ENA aircraft field campaign was examined to study the heterogeneities of cloud and drizzle microphysical properties and the aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. Variabilities in cloud and drizzle microphysics were found in two different flight legs, with one leg close to adiabatic and the other sub-adiabatic. The sub-cloud precipitation rate and CCN loss rates were significantly higher in the sub-adiabatic leg, highlighting the importance of considering cloud and drizzle heterogeneities in assessing aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions.
A closed-cell marine stratocumulus case during the Aerosol and Cloud Experiments in the Eastern North Atlantic (ACE-ENA) aircraft field campaign is selected to examine the heterogeneities of cloud and drizzle microphysical properties and the aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions. The spatial and vertical variabilities of cloud and drizzle microphysics are found in two different sets of flight legs: Leg-1 and Leg-2, which are parallel and perpendicular to the cloud propagation, respectively. The cloud along Leg-2 was close to adiabatic, where cloud-droplet effective radius and liquid water content linearly increase from cloud base to cloud top with less drizzle. The cloud along Leg-1 was sub-adiabatic with lower cloud-droplet number concentration and larger cloud-droplet effective, but higher drizzle droplet number concentration, larger drizzle droplet median diameter and drizzle liquid water content. The heavier drizzle frequency and intensity on Leg-1 were enhanced by the collision-coalescence processes within cloud due to strong turbulence. The sub-cloud precipitation rate on Leg-1 was significantly higher than that along Leg-2. As a result, the sub-cloud accumulation mode aerosols and CCN on Leg-1 were depleted, but the coarse model aerosols increased. This further leads to a counter-intuitive phenomenon that the CCN is less than cloud-droplet number concentration for Leg-1. The average CCN loss rates are -3.89 cm(-3) h(-1) and -0.77 cm(-3) h(-1) on Leg-1 and Leg-2, respectively. The cloud and drizzle heterogeneities inside the same stratocumulus can significantly alter the sub-cloud aerosols and CCN budget. Hence it should be treated with caution in the aircraft assessment of aerosol-cloud-precipitation interactions.

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