A Study of Aerosol Impacts on Clouds and Precipitation Development in a Large Winter Cyclone
NSF National Center for Atmospheric Research · Research Applications (United States)
Abstract
Abstract Aerosols influence cloud and precipitation development in complex ways due to myriad feedbacks at a variety of scales from individual clouds through entire storm systems. This paper describes the implementation, testing, and results of a newly modified bulk microphysical parameterization with explicit cloud droplet nucleation and ice activation by aerosols. Idealized tests and a high-resolution, convection-permitting, continental-scale, 72-h simulation with five sensitivity experiments showed that increased aerosol number concentration results in more numerous cloud droplets of overall smaller size and delays precipitation development. Furthermore, the smaller droplet sizes cause the expected…
Citation impact
- FWCI
- 21.70
- Percentile
- 100%
- References
- 80
Authors
2Topics & keywords
- Environmental science
- Aerosol
- Precipitation
- Atmospheric sciences
- Climatology
- Storm
- Meteorology
- Snow
- Climate action