Abstract
Experimental investigations of phenomena associated with the growth and interaction of ice crystals during free-fall in supercooled liquid water clouds are presented. This report focuses on the effects that included inorganic salts have on the microphysical processes. Dilute aqueous solutions of inorganic salts of typical concentration and chemical composition of atmospheric cloud and precipitation water were used to form supercooled liquid water clouds in a cloud chamber. Subsequent nucleation of ice produced a cloud of rapidly growing ice crystals which simulated atmospheric ice crystal initial growth and interaction. The investigations found that the salt composition affected: (1) ice crystal morphology; (2) orientation of aggregate junctions; and (3) probability of secondary ice formation occurring during an experiment. The results were reproducible and were not as strongly affected by other experimental variabilities as by the chemical composition of the aqueous solution. A conceptual model, based upon the observed freezing potential (the Workman and Reynolds effect) which results from freezing of dilute aqueous solutions, is advanced which explains the observed phenomena.
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