Turbulent transport and deposition of fog droplets in the Central Namib

Abstract

<p>Regular, nocturnal fog is a defining and seasonally varying feature in the Namib desert. Historical observations were limited to the binary measure of fog occurrence and the concurrent fog water input is quantified only since 2014 via the FogNet using Juvik fog collectors. This installation opened new avenues of research such as the efficiency of the transport mechanism, sampling and spatial variation thereof. An eddy covariance setup of a cloud droplet probe and collocated sonic(s) was installed in turns at the two FogNet stations Vogelfederberg (23.10°S, 15.03°E, 515 m above sea level) and Gobabeb (23.56°S, 15.04°E, 406 m above sea level) for 2 years in the frame of the Namib Fog Life Cycle Analysis Field Measurements (NaFoLiCA-F) project. With this setup, we gathered duration, droplet size distribution, droplet concentration, liquid water content, turbulent liquid water flux and the fog water input via the Juvik fog collector with a total of over 150 fog events. We found that fog appears suddenly and front-like as seen by an increase of droplet numbers by several magnitudes and dissolves more gradually towards the morning. All droplet classes of the resolved range of 2 to 50 µm are present, but at the Vogelfederberg with around 2 to 3 times larger fog water input, the mean and median of the distribution are lower due to comparably fewer large droplets. Liquid water fluxes at both sites resulted in a net gain for the surface but the spatial discrepancy between fog water input recorded by fog collectors and the liquid water content indicates that drizzle, i.e. droplets outside the resolved range, may contribute to the larger total water deposition at Vogelfederberg.</p>