| Abstract: | During a study of the growth of cloud drops by condensation the evolution of cloud drop size spectra with height above cloud base was determined for maritime aerosols, and for continental aerosols containing aerosol particles of mixed composition. Air parcel models were used in which the parcel was either completely closed to mass and heat transfer (strictly adiabatic models), or open to heat transfer and to partial or complete mass transfer (entrainment models). It was found that adiabatic models and models which consider the entraining of air devoid of aerosol particles predict drop size distributions which are considerably narrower than those observed in non-precipitating cumulus clouds, and have only a single maximum. On the other hand, relative broad drop size distributions and distributions with a double maximum — as they are observed in atmospheric clouds — are predicted if the entrainment of both air and aerosol particles are considered in the condensation model. Our results support the findings ofWarner (1973) which were obtained for a purely maritime aerosol. |
