Abstract
Abstract. A high-resolution regional-scale numerical model was extended by a parameterization that allows for both the generation and the life cycle of contrails and contrail cirrus to be calculated. The life cycle of contrails and contrail cirrus is described by a two-moment cloud microphysical scheme that was extended by a separate contrail ice class for a better representation of the high concentration of small ice crystals that occur in contrails. The basic input data set contains the spatially and temporally highly resolved flight trajectories over Central Europe derived from real-time data. The parameterization provides aircraft-dependent source terms for contrail ice mass and number. A case study was performed to investigate the influence of contrails and contrail cirrus on the shortwave radiative fluxes at the earth's surface. Accounting for contrails produced by aircraft enabled the model to simulate high clouds that were otherwise missing on this day. The effect of these extra clouds was to reduce the incoming shortwave radiation at the surface as well as the production of photovoltaic power by up to 10 %.
Highlights
Contrails consist of ice crystals formed in the exhaust plume of aircraft due to mixing of the hot and humid exhaust with cold environmental air
A high-resolution regional-scale numerical model was extended by a parameterization that allows for both the generation and the life cycle of contrails and contrail cirrus to be calculated
The life cycle of contrails and contrail cirrus is described by a two-moment cloud microphysical scheme that was extended by a separate contrail ice class for a better representation of the high concentration of small ice crystals that occur in contrails
Summary
Contrails consist of ice crystals formed in the exhaust plume of aircraft due to mixing of the hot and humid exhaust with cold environmental air. Parameter studies allow for investigating the conditions under which contrails are persistent and the manner in which microphysical and optical properties change during transition and decay Because this method is not applicable for a larger number of contrails and often limited to idealized environmental scenarios, it is not suited to quantify the impact of air traffic on the state of the atmosphere. Because the description of SW optical properties for ice clouds is optimized for various naturally occurring crystal habits (Fu et al, 1998; Key et al, 2002), a separate treatment of contrail ice crystals is introduced here as well Another feature of this study is the new and recently compiled data set of flight trajectories.
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