Comment on acp-2021-927

Abstract

A new empirical parameterization (EP) for multiple groups of primary biological aerosol particles (PBAPs) is implemented in the aerosol cloud model (AC) to investigate their roles as ice-nucleating particles (INPs). The EP describes the heterogeneous ice nucleation by (1) fungal spores, (2) bacteria, (3) pollen, (4) detritus of plants, animals, and viruses, and (5) algae. Each group includes fragments from the originally emitted particles. A high-resolution simulation of a midlatitude mesoscale squall line by AC is validated against airborne and ground observations. Sensitivity tests are carried out by varying the initial vertical profiles of the loadings of individual PBAP groups. The resulting changes in warm and ice microphysical parameters are investigated. Overall, PBAPs have little effect on the ice phase, especially in the convective region. In the stratiform region, increasing the initial PBAP loadings by a factor of 100 resulted in less than 60 % change in ice number concentrations. The total ice concentration is mostly controlled by various mechanisms of secondary ice production (SIP). However, when SIP is artificially prohibited in sensitivity tests, increasing the PBAP loading by a factor of 100 has no significant effect on the ice phase. Further sensitivity tests revealed that PBAPs have little effect on surface precipitation as well as on shortwave and longwave flux.