Interaction between Hygroscopic Seeding and Mixed-Phase Microphysics in Convective Clouds

Abstract

Abstract Intentional release of hygroscopic particles, or seeding, in convective clouds is one of the postulated methods to artificially enhance rainfall. Motivated by the general uncertainty in the underlying physics, this work employs a large-eddy simulation code together with a detailed aerosol–cloud microphysics model to investigate the conditions and processes conducive to seeding in the United Arab Emirates. Mixed-phase processes are identified as the main source for rainfall in convective clouds in this area owing to the continental aerosol characteristics and a high cloud-base altitude relatively close to the freezing level. Subsequently, our model experiments highlight the importance of mixed-phase processes in mediating the effects of hygroscopic seeding on rainfall as well. The seeding particles acted to accelerate riming by increasing the number of large droplets taken above the freezing level by the convective updrafts. The rime fraction was increased by up to 15%, which promotes the growth of the frozen hydrometeors, eventually leading to enhanced rainfall via melting. The peak enhancement in surface rainfall was up to 20%–30%, although this is almost certainly an overestimation relative to real-world operations because of the simplified description of the seeding in the model. The strongest rain enhancement was obtained with a high background aerosol concentration of approximately 4500 cm−3, whereas reduced aerosol resulted in weaker enhancement. The latter case showed an overall higher rime fraction indicating an already efficient precipitation formation process, which suppressed the seeding-induced enhancement. The conclusions of our work encourage more careful consideration of the mixed-phase processes in quantifying the hygroscopic seeding effects in continental convective clouds.