Observations of condensation growth determined by entity type mixing |
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| Authors: | James W Telford Peter B Wagner |
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| Institution: | (1) Atmospheric Sciences Center, Desert Research Institute, University of Nevada System, P.O. Box 60220, 89506 Reno, NV, USA |
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| Abstract: | It has been speculated for many years that the development of the droplet spectra in cloud is probably influenced by mixing processes. Various theoretical attempts to broaden the droplet spectra by mixing parcels with different velocity histories has shown that that particular effect is small. Similarly, very simpleuniform entrainment procedures did not lead to cloud drop size spectra which were broad enough, although by producing cloud drop size distributions with a double mode these models did substantially improve the drop size spectra of earlier adiabatic models which only exhibited a single mode.Recently a model based on entraining entities representing moving parcels of cloud air within the cloud was detailed byTelford andChai (1980). This study showed that the mixing in of dry air at cumulus turrets could lead to vertical cycling of diluted parcels, and that this cycling, with continual entrainment across the parcel boundaries, will produce much larger drops, as well as smaller drops of all sizes, in the droplet spectra. The  entity entrainment concept studied there appears to apply to the observations of stratus cloud discussed in this paper.This paper presents data taken in marine stratus off the California coast which give a particularly clear example of how such droplet spectra modification occurs in practice. Both large drops, and the spread of the spectra to smaller sizes, occur in relation to other variables in such a way as to be consistent with an entity entrainment explanation, with no other obvious possibility.In a marine stratus cloud just over 200 m thick and many tens of miles in extent we find clear evidence that dry air is mixing in at cloud tops. Strong vertical motion is to be found in the cloud, large sized drops are found in cloud parcels where the mixing gives lower droplet concentrations, and there is evidence that newly formed cloud parcels are warmer and contain many more smaller droplets.The observations show that immediately following entrainment of dry air drop diameters are not reduced appreciably, but, in the same parcels, drop concentrations have been reduced by a factor of ten or more. Further down in the cloud big drops, able to start growth by coalescence, are found associated with low total droplet concentrations.Overall, it seems likely from the consideration of these observations that the formation of the large drops which lead to precipitation processes in clouds depends critically on the mixing in of dry air at cloud tops, and very little on the size of the small drops resulting from the condensation nucleus counts. As a conclusion it appears reasonable to state that if entrainment occurs at cloud tops, then big drops will be formed! |
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| Keywords: | Condensation effect of entrainment on Cloud drop formation effect of entrainment on |
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