Ice Crystal Number Research Articles

Assessing predicted cirrus ice properties between two deterministic ice formation parameterizations

Abstract. Determining the dominant ice nucleation mode in cirrus is still an open research question that impacts the ability to assess the climate impact of these clouds in numerical models. Homogeneous nucleation is generally well understood. More uncertainty surrounds heterogeneous nucleation due to a weaker understanding of the complex physio-chemical properties (e.g., ice nucleation efficiency and atmospheric abundance) of ice nucleating particles (INPs). This hampers efforts to simulate their interactions with cirrus, which is crucial in order to assess the effect these clouds have on the climate system. Kärcher and Marcolli (2021) introduced a new deterministic heterogeneous ice nucleation parameterization based on the differential activated fraction (AF), which describes the number of INPs that activate ice within a specified temperature or ice saturation ratio interval. They argued that this new approach with explicit INP budgeting, which removes INPs from the total population after they nucleate ice, could help to correct a potential overprediction of heterogeneous nucleation within cirrus when budgeting is not considered. We formulated a general circulation model (GCM)-compatible version of the differential AF parameterization for simulating only deposition nucleation within in situ cirrus and compared it to the method currently employed in the ECHAM6.3-HAM2.3 GCM that is based on cumulative AF. This default cumulative AF approach does not use explicit INP budgeting but instead implicitly budgets for INPs that nucleated ice using a differential ice crystal number concentration variable to calculate whether new ice formation should be added to the pre-existing concentration. In a series of box model simulations that were based on the cirrus sub-model from ECHAM, we found that the cumulative approach likely underpredicts heterogeneous nucleation in cirrus, as it does not account for interstitial INPs remaining from the previous GCM time step. However, as the cases that we simulated in the box model were rather extreme, we extended our analysis to compare the differential and cumulative AF approaches in two simulations in ECHAM-HAM. We find that choosing between these two approaches impacts ice nucleation competition within cirrus in our model. However, based on our 5-year simulations, the small and insignificant difference in the top-of-atmosphere radiative balance of 0.02±0.35 Wm−2 means that the overall climate impact is negligible. We argue that while our GCM-compatible differential AF parameterization is closer to first principles, the default approach based on cumulative AF is simpler due to the lack of additional tracers required. Finally, our new approach could be extended to assess the impact of explicit versus implicit INP budgeting on the ice crystal number concentration produced by immersion freezing of mineral dust particles, as this is also an important mechanism in cirrus.

Aerosol Impacts on Storm Electrification and Lightning Discharges Under Different Thermodynamic Environments

AbstractThe impacts of aerosol and thermodynamics on electrification and lightning activities have been investigated in detail using the Weather Research and Forecasting Model coupled with a double‐moment microphysics parameterization and an explicit electrification lightning scheme. To obtain a varied combination of convective available potential energy (CAPE) values and aerosol concentrations, a sounding was modified consistently and initiated with five sets of aerosol concentrations that served as cloud condensation nuclei. The simulated electric processes respond to the varying dynamical and microphysical characteristics associated with the different CAPE and aerosol conditions. Under high CAPE circumstances, the augmentation of ice‐phase particle leads to the enhancement of non‐inductive charging primarily through the dynamic processes. Increased aerosol content further invigorates the electrification through microphysical processes. Elevated aerosol loading under low CAPE conditions increases cloud droplet and ice crystal numbers. Larger graupel particle size further leads to the enhanced electric intensity and lightning discharges.

A mathematical model for supercooling process and its application to frazil ice evolution

The calculation of the number of ice crystals for the model of frazil ice evolution is very important and affects the whole frazil events. In this paper, the general formula for the number of frazil ice crystals was established considering secondary nucleation, flocculation, gravity and turbulent entrainment, and ice crystals by melting. Meanwhile, two physical processes of secondary nucleation and flocculation were expressed by introducing critical impact velocity and the probability of flocculation from previous models. It has been found that the simulation results of frazil ice evolution are in good agreement with the experimental data and actual project. Then, Sobol method is carried out to judge parameters’ influence degree, which found the number of nuclei produced E is the most sensitive and has the greatest influence on the model results. In addition, sensitivity analysis of these parameters shows that they can affect the maximum supercooling and the period of supercooling. Therefore, the calculation method of the number of ice crystals is applied, which provides technical support for exploring the water temperature and internal relationship of frazil ice evolution.

Aircraft observations of gravity wave activity and turbulence in the tropical tropopause layer: prevalence, influence on cirrus clouds, and comparison with global storm-resolving models

Abstract. The tropical tropopause layer (TTL) is a sea of vertical motions. Convectively generated gravity waves create vertical winds on scales of a few to thousands of kilometers as they propagate in a stable atmosphere. Turbulence from gravity wave breaking, radiatively driven convection, and Kelvin–Helmholtz instabilities stirs up the TTL on the kilometer scale. TTL cirrus clouds, which moderate the water vapor concentration in the TTL and stratosphere, form in the cold phases of large-scale (> 100 km) wave activity. It has been proposed in several modeling studies that small-scale (< 100 km) vertical motions control the ice crystal number concentration and the dehydration efficiency of TTL cirrus clouds. Here, we present the first observational evidence for this. High-rate vertical winds measured by aircraft are a valuable and underutilized tool for constraining small-scale TTL vertical wind variability, examining its impacts on TTL cirrus clouds, and evaluating atmospheric models. We use 20 Hz data from five National Aeronautics and Space Administration (NASA) campaigns to quantify small-scale vertical wind variability in the TTL and to see how it varies with ice water content, distance from deep convective cores, and height in the TTL. We find that 1 Hz vertical winds are well represented by a normal distribution, with a standard deviation of 0.2–0.4 m s−1. Consistent with a previous observational study that analyzed two out of the five aircraft campaigns that we analyze here, we find that turbulence is enhanced over the tropical west Pacific and within 100 km of convection and is most common in the lower TTL (14–15.5 km), closer to deep convection, and in the upper TTL (15.5–17 km), further from deep convection. An algorithm to classify turbulence and long-wavelength (5 km < λ < 100 km) and short-wavelength (λ < 5 km) gravity wave activity during level flight legs is applied to data from the Airborne Tropical TRopopause EXperiment (ATTREX). The most commonly sampled conditions are (1) a quiescent atmosphere with negligible small-scale vertical wind variability, (2) long-wavelength gravity wave activity (LW GWA), and (3) LW GWA with turbulence. Turbulence rarely occurs in the absence of gravity wave activity. Cirrus clouds with ice crystal number concentrations exceeding 20 L−1 and ice water content exceeding 1 mg m−3 are rare in a quiescent atmosphere but about 20 times more likely when there is gravity wave activity and 50 times more likely when there is also turbulence, confirming the results of the aforementioned modeling studies. Our observational analysis shows that small-scale gravity waves strongly influence the ice crystal number concentration and ice water content within TTL cirrus clouds. Global storm-resolving models have recently been run with horizontal grid spacing between 1 and 10 km, which is sufficient to resolve some small-scale gravity wave activity. We evaluate simulated vertical wind spectra (10–100 km) from four global storm-resolving simulations that have horizontal grid spacing of 3–5 km with aircraft observations from ATTREX. We find that all four models have too little resolved vertical wind at horizontal wavelengths between 10 and 100 km and thus too little small-scale gravity wave activity, although the bias is much less pronounced in global SAM than in the other models. We expect that deficient small-scale gravity wave activity significantly limits the realism of simulated ice microphysics in these models and that improved representation requires moving to finer horizontal and vertical grid spacing.

Measurements of Ice Crystal Fluxes from the Surface at a Mountain Top Site

New observations of anomalously high cloud ice crystal concentrations at the Jungfraujoch research station (Switzerland, 3.5 km a.s.l.) are presented. High-resolution measurements of these ice crystals using a high-speed 2D imaging cloud particle spectrometer confirm that the concentrations far exceed those expected from any known primary ice production mechanisms and are at temperatures well below those for known secondary ice production processes to contribute. The most likely explanation is due to a strong surface source generated by the interaction of turbulent deposition of supercooled droplets to fragile ice-covered snow surfaces. This process enhances the detachment of crystal fragments wherein the smaller size mode is turbulently re-suspended even at low wind speeds below expected blowing snow thresholds. These then continue to grow, adding significantly to the ice crystal number concentrations whose size and habit is determined by the transport time between the ice crystal source and measurement location and liquid water profile within the cloud. We confirm, using eddy covariance measurements of ice particle number fluxes, that the likely source is significantly far upwind to preclude flow distortion effects such that the source plume has homogenised by the time they are measured at the mountain top summit.

Heavy snowfall event over the Swiss Alps: did wind shear impact secondary ice production?

Abstract. The change in wind direction and speed with height, referred to as vertical wind shear, causes enhanced turbulence in the atmosphere. As a result, there are enhanced interactions between ice particles that break up during collisions in clouds which could cause heavy snowfall. For example, intense dual-polarization Doppler signatures in conjunction with strong vertical wind shear were observed by an X-band weather radar during a wintertime high-intensity precipitation event over the Swiss Alps. An enhancement of differential phase shift (Kdp>1∘ km−1) around −15 ∘C suggested that a large population of oblate ice particles was present in the atmosphere. Here, we show that ice–graupel collisions are a likely origin of this population, probably enhanced by turbulence. We perform sensitivity simulations that include ice–graupel collisions of a cold frontal passage to investigate whether these simulations can capture the event better and whether the vertical wind shear had an impact on the secondary ice production (SIP) rate. The simulations are conducted with the Consortium for Small-scale Modeling (COSMO), at a 1 km horizontal grid spacing in the Davos region in Switzerland. The rime-splintering simulations could not reproduce the high ice crystal number concentrations, produced too large ice particles and therefore overestimated the radar reflectivity. The collisional-breakup simulations reproduced both the measured horizontal reflectivity and the ground-based observations of hydrometeor number concentration more accurately (∼20 L−1). During 14:30–15:45 UTC the vertical wind shear strengthened by 60 % within the region favorable for SIP. Calculation of the mutual information between the SIP rate and vertical wind shear and updraft velocity suggests that the SIP rate is best predicted by the vertical wind shear rather than the updraft velocity. The ice–graupel simulations were insensitive to the parameters in the model that control the size threshold for the conversion from ice to graupel and snow to graupel.

Impact of formulations of the homogeneous nucleation rate on ice nucleation events in cirrus

Abstract. Homogeneous freezing of solution droplets is an important pathway of ice formation in the tropopause region. The nucleation rate can be parameterized as a function of water activity, based on empirical fits and some assumptions on the underlying properties of super-cooled water, although a general theory is missing. It is not clear how nucleation events are influenced by the exact formulation of the nucleation rate or even their inherent uncertainty. In this study we investigate the formulation of the nucleation rate of homogeneous freezing of solution droplets (1) to link the formulation to the nucleation rate of pure water droplets, (2) to derive a robust and simple formulation of the nucleation rate, and (3) to determine the impact of variations in the formulation on nucleation events. The nucleation rate can be adjusted, and the formulation can be simplified to a threshold description. We use a state-of-the-art bulk ice microphysics model to investigate nucleation events as driven by constant cooling rates; the key variables are the final ice crystal number concentration and the maximum supersaturation during the event. The nucleation events are sensitive to the slope of the nucleation rate but only weakly affected by changes in its absolute value. This leads to the conclusion that details of the nucleation rate are less important for simulating ice nucleation in bulk models as long as the main feature of the nucleation rate (i.e. its slope) is represented sufficiently well. The weak sensitivity of the absolute values to the nucleation rate suggests that the amount of available solution droplets also does not crucially affect nucleation events. The use of only one distinct nucleation threshold function for analysis and model parameterization should be reinvestigated, since it corresponds to a very high nucleation rate value, which is not reached in many nucleation events with low vertical updrafts. In contrast, the maximum supersaturation and thus the nucleation thresholds reached during an ice nucleation event depend on the vertical updraft velocity or cooling rate. This feature might explain some high supersaturation values during nucleation events in cloud chambers and suggests a reformulation of ice nucleation schemes used in coarse models based on a purely temperature-dependent nucleation threshold.

The Role of Mineral Dust Aerosol Particles in Aviation Soot‐Cirrus Interactions

AbstractPredicting cirrus cloud properties with confidence requires a sound understanding of the relative roles of homogeneous and heterogeneous ice formation. This study explores the effect of mineral dust and contrail‐processed aviation soot particles as ice‐nucleating particles (INPs) competing with liquid solution droplets in cirrus formation. We study aerosol‐cirrus interactions by accounting for atmospheric variability in updraft speeds and INP number concentrations. Our results confirm the dominant role of mineral dust in ice nucleation events in cirrus clouds. In addition, we show that pre‐existing thin cirrus may suppress ice formation when updraft speeds are low. We find that homogeneous freezing of liquid solution droplets dominates clear‐sky aerosol‐cirrus interaction above a threshold updraft speed determined by total number concentrations and ice nucleation abilities of INPs. When mineral dust particles exceed number concentrations of 10 L−1, they reduce homogeneously nucleated ice crystal numbers significantly and even prevent homogeneous freezing for frequently observed local updraft speeds between 10 and 20 cm s−1. When both mineral dust and aviation soot particles coexist with solution droplets, dust typically prevents ice nucleation by aviation soot. Aviation soot exerts a notable impact on cirrus ice numbers only if updrafts are weak, large soot particles are present in number concentrations that are considerably higher than typically observed in emission measurements, and/or number concentrations of mineral dust and other INPs are low. Overall, our results elucidate the role of aviation soot‐cirrus interactions in the presence of other INP types.

Understanding cirrus clouds using explainable machine learning

Abstract Cirrus clouds are key modulators of Earth’s climate. Their dependencies on meteorological and aerosol conditions are among the largest uncertainties in global climate models. This work uses 3 years of satellite and reanalysis data to study the link between cirrus drivers and cloud properties. We use a gradient-boosted machine learning model and a long short-term memory network with an attention layer to predict the ice water content and ice crystal number concentration. The models show that meteorological and aerosol conditions can predict cirrus properties with R2 = 0.49. Feature attributions are calculated with SHapley Additive exPlanations to quantify the link between meteorological and aerosol conditions and cirrus properties. For instance, the minimum concentration of supermicron-sized dust particles required to cause a decrease in ice crystal number concentration predictions is 2 × 10−4 mg/m3. The last 15 hr before the observation predict all cirrus properties.

Conditions favorable for secondary ice production in Arctic mixed-phase clouds

Abstract. The Arctic is very susceptible to climate change and thus is warming much faster than the rest of the world. Clouds influence terrestrial and solar radiative fluxes and thereby impact the amplified Arctic warming. The partitioning of thermodynamic phases (i.e., ice crystals and water droplets) within mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) especially influences their radiative properties. However, the processes responsible for ice crystal formation remain only partially characterized. In particular, so-called secondary ice production (SIP) processes, which create supplementary ice crystals from primary ice crystals and the environmental conditions that they occur in, are poorly understood. The microphysical properties of Arctic MPCs were measured during the Ny-Ålesund AeroSol Cloud ExperimENT (NASCENT) campaign to obtain a better understanding of the atmospheric conditions favorable for the occurrence of SIP processes. To this aim, the in situ cloud microphysical properties retrieved by a holographic cloud imager mounted on a tethered balloon system were complemented by ground-based remote sensing and ice-nucleating particle measurements. During the 6 d investigated in this study, SIP occurred during about 40 % of the in-cloud measurements, and high SIP events with number concentrations larger than 10 L−1 of small pristine ice crystals occurred in 4 % of the in-cloud measurements. This demonstrates the role of SIP for Arctic MPCs. The highest concentrations of small pristine ice crystals were produced at temperatures between −5 and −3 ∘C and were related to the occurrence of supercooled large droplets freezing upon collision with ice crystals. This suggests that a large fraction of ice crystals in Arctic MPCs are produced via the droplet-shattering mechanism. From evaluating the ice crystal images, we could identify ice–ice collision as a second SIP mechanism that dominated when fragile ice crystals were observed. Moreover, SIP occurred over a large temperature range and was observed in up to 80 % of the measurements down to −24 ∘C due to the occurrence of ice–ice collisions. This emphasizes the importance of SIP at temperatures below −8 ∘C, which are currently not accounted for in most numerical weather models. Although ice-nucleating particles may be necessary for the initial freezing of water droplets, the ice crystal number concentration is frequently determined by secondary production mechanisms.

Impact of Parametrizing Microphysical Processes in the Jet and Vortex Phase on Contrail Cirrus Properties and Radiative Forcing

AbstractContrail ice nucleation and ice crystal loss during the vortex phase control ice crystal numbers in young contrails and can have a strong impact on the properties and the life cycle of contrail cirrus. For current soot number emissions, ice nucleation is controlled by the number of emitted soot particles and atmospheric conditions while the vortex phase loss depends predominantly on the nucleated ice crystal numbers and the ambient relative humidity. Initial ice crystal numbers after the vortex phase are close to the emitted soot particle number only for very low ambient temperatures (<210 K) and for highly ice‐supersaturated conditions. Higher temperatures and lower relative humidities lead to significantly decreased ice crystal numbers. Global climate model simulations show that initial contrail ice crystal numbers per fuel mass are on average 50%–65% decreased relative to the soot number emission index in the extratropics and more in tropics. In the extratropics, this is mainly caused by a high ice crystal loss during the vortex phase and in the (sub)tropics and at lower flight levels by decreased ice nucleation. Simulated ice crystal numbers per newly formed contrail length agree well with in situ measurements over central Europe within the variability of present‐day soot number emissions. Our estimated global mean contrail cirrus radiative forcing (RF) for the year 2006 is 44 (31–49) mWm−2, around 22% lower than estimated in a previous study. When reducing soot number emissions by 80%, RF decreases by 41%, slightly less than suggested by a recent study.

A Lagrangian Perspective of Microphysical Impact on Ice Cloud Evolution and Radiative Heating

AbstractWe generate trajectories in storm‐resolving simulations in order to quantify the effect of ice microphysics on tropical upper‐tropospheric cloud‐radiative heating. The pressure and flow field tracked along the trajectories are used to run different ice microphysical schemes, both one‐ and two‐moment formulations within the Icosahedral Non‐hydrostatic Model model and a separate offline box microphysics model (CLaMS‐Ice). This computational approach allows us to isolate purely microphysical differences in a variant of “microphysical piggybacking;” feedbacks of microphysics onto pressure and the flow field, for example, via latent heating, are suppressed. Despite these constraints, we find about a 5‐fold difference in median cloud ice mass mixing ratios (qi) and ice crystal number (Ni) between the microphysical schemes and very distinct qi distributions versus temperature and relative humidity with respect to ice along the trajectories. After investigating microphysical formulations for nucleation, depositional growth, and sedimentation, we propose three cirrus lifecycles: a weak source‐strong sink lifecycle whose longwave and shortwave heating are smallest due to short lifetime and low optical depth, a strong source‐weak sink lifecycle whose longwave and shortwave heating are largest due to long lifetime and high optical depth, and a strong source‐strong sink lifecycle with intermediate radiative properties.

Technical note: Identification of two ice-nucleating regimes for dust-related cirrus clouds based on the relationship between number concentrations of ice-nucleating particles and ice crystals

Abstract. Large amounts of dust aerosols are lifted to the upper troposphere every year and play a major role in cirrus formation by acting as efficient ice nuclei. However, the relative importance of heterogeneous nucleation and spontaneous homogenous nucleation in dust-related cirrus clouds is still not well evaluated globally. Here, based on spaceborne observations, we propose a method to identify two ice-nucleating regimes of dust-related cirrus clouds, i.e., (1) the sole presence of heterogeneous nucleation and (2) competition between heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation, by characterizing the relationship between dust ice-nucleating particle concentrations (INPCs) calculated from the Cloud-Aerosol LIdar with Orthogonal Polarization (CALIOP) using the POlarization LIdar PHOtometer Networking (POLIPHON) method and in-cloud ice crystal number concentration (ICNC) from the DARDAR (lidar–radar) dataset. Two typical cirrus cases over central China are shown as a demonstration. In the first case, the upper part (near the cloud top) of a series of cirrus clouds successfully realized the INPC–ICNC closure, meaning that solely heterogeneous nucleation takes place, while the lower part of cirrus clouds showed the possible competition between heterogeneous and homogeneous nucleation. In the second case, the ICNCs in the cirrus cloud dramatically exceeded the dust INPCs in the vicinity by more than an order of magnitude, revealing that besides dust-induced heterogeneous nucleation, homogeneous nucleation also participated in ice formation and produced additional ice crystals. The proposed identification method is anticipated to apply in the evaluation of the influence of upper-troposphere dust on global cirrus formation and the investigation of the potential positive role of cirrus cloud thinning in the offset of climate warming.

A Parameterization of Cirrus Cloud Formation: Revisiting Competing Ice Nucleation

AbstractThis study develops an advanced physically‐based parameterization of heterogeneous ice nucleation in cirrus clouds that includes an updated parameterization of stochastic homogeneous freezing of supercooled solution droplets. Both components are formulated based on the same methodology and level of approximation, without numerical integration of the underlying ice supersaturation equation. The new scheme includes measured ice nucleation spectra describing deterministic ice activation from an arbitrary number of types of ice‐nucleating particles (INPs), tracks the competition for available water vapor between the different ice nucleation modes, and allows for new ice formation and growth within pre‐existing cirrus clouds. The computationally efficient scheme works with a minimal set of physical input parameters and predicts total nucleated ice crystal number concentrations (ICNCs) along with the maximum ice supersaturation attained during cirrus formation events. Aspects of its implementation into host models are discussed, including the provision of suitably parameterized vertical wind speeds. The parameterization is validated by comparisons to numerical simulations. First off‐line applications to mineral dust and aviation soot particles are presented, including ICNC ensemble statistics resulting from the coupling with statistics of updraft speed variability.

Retrieving ice-nucleating particle concentration and ice multiplication factors using active remote sensing validated by in situ observations

Abstract. Understanding the evolution of the ice phase within mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) is necessary to reduce uncertainties related to the cloud radiative feedback in climate projections and precipitation initiation. Both primary ice formation via ice-nucleating particles (INPs) and secondary ice production (SIP) within MPCs are unconstrained, not least because of the lack of atmospheric observations. In the past decades, advanced remote sensing methods have emerged which provide high-resolution data of aerosol and cloud properties and could be key in understanding microphysical processes on a global scale. In this study, we retrieved INP concentrations and ice multiplication factors (IMFs) in wintertime orographic clouds using active remote sensing and in situ observations obtained during the RACLETS campaign in the Swiss Alps. INP concentrations in air masses dominated by Saharan dust and continental aerosol were retrieved from a polarization Raman lidar and validated with aerosol and INP in situ observations on a mountaintop. A calibration factor of 0.0204 for the global INP parameterization by DeMott et al. (2010) is derived by comparing in situ aerosol and INP measurements, improving the INP concentration retrieval for continental aerosols. Based on combined lidar and radar measurements, the ice crystal number concentration and ice water content were retrieved and validated with balloon-borne in situ observations, which agreed with the balloon-borne in situ observations within an order of magnitude. For seven cloud cases the ice multiplication factors (IMFs), defined as the quotient of the ice crystal number concentration to the INP concentration, were calculated. The median IMF was around 80, and SIP was active (defined as IMFs > 1) nearly 85 % of the time. SIP was found to be active at all observed temperatures (−30 to −5 ∘C), with the highest IMFs between −20 and −5 ∘C. The introduced methodology could be extended to larger datasets to better understand the impact of SIP not only over the Alps but also at other locations and for other cloud types.

Contrail formation within cirrus: ICON-LEM simulations of the impact of cirrus cloud properties on contrail formation

Abstract. Contrail formation within natural cirrus introduces large perturbations in cirrus ice crystal number concentrations, leading to modifications in cirrus microphysical and optical properties. The number of contrail ice crystals formed in an aircraft plume depends on the atmospheric state as well as aircraft and fuel properties. Our aim is to study contrail formation within cirrus and, in particular, the impact of pre-existing cirrus on the contrail formation processes. We implement a parameterization for contrail ice nucleation and the survival of contrail ice crystals within the vortex phase within the high-resolution ICON-LEM at a horizontal resolution of 625 m over Germany and modify the parameterizations in order to consider the impact of the pre-existing cirrus. We then simulate contrail formation and analyze the change in ice nucleation and survival due to the presence of cirrus ice crystals. We have selected two different synoptic situations to sample a large range of cirrus cloud properties from those representative of average thick in situ formed cirrus and liquid origin cirrus that are connected to a frontal system down to very thin cirrus within a high-pressure system. We find that contrail formation within cirrus mostly leads to increases in cirrus ice crystal numbers by a few orders of magnitude. Pre-existing cirrus has a discernible impact on the contrail formation threshold temperature and on contrail ice crystal number concentrations only if the cirrus ice water content is high and ice supersaturation is low. The cirrus ice crystals sucked into and subsequently sublimated within the aircraft's engine and the ice crystals mixed into the aircraft plume experiencing sublimation and later deposition lead to an increase in the contrail formation threshold temperature most of the time. Often this increase is negligible, but in the above atmospheric conditions the increase in the contrail formation threshold can be large, reaching maximum values of 2 K. Consequently, significant increases in ice nucleation are very seldom, but in areas of high cirrus ice water content and ice crystal number concentrations, contrail ice nucleation rates can be significantly increased, in particular at lower flight levels. Cirrus ice crystals can also lead to a reduction in ice nucleation, but negative changes are significantly smaller and less common. After nucleation cirrus and contrail ice crystals compete for water vapor, while the combined contrail and cirrus ice water mass grows. Once the aircraft plume gets trapped within the wake vortices and descends the plume relative humidity decreases so that eventually both cirrus and contrail ice crystals sublimate. We find that the impact of cirrus ice crystals on the contrail ice crystal loss within the descending vortices is negligible. Only for nucleation rates several orders of magnitude lower than the soot number emission index can the impact be noticeable, but the relevance of this impact is limited.

X-ray microtomography of ice crystal formation and growth in a sponge cake during its freezing and storage

X-ray tomography has been used to characterize microstructural changes taking place into sponge cake upon freezing and subsequent storage at fluctuating temperatures. The CellDyM cooling cell, initially developed for snow, was used to subject a sponge cake sample to freezing and thermal cycling directly inside the X-ray tomograph. 3D images of the same sample have been scanned at different times during 6 days. An original image processing based on Digital Volumetric Correlation (DVC) has been implemented in order to segment the images and then to quantify porosity changes and ice crystal formation and growth. Overall, the obtained results have shown that (i) all the ice crystals are located at the pore surface and no crystal was found inside the sponge cake crumb matrix and (ii) during the thermal cycling, the size of the ice crystals linearly increases while the number of ice crystals tends towards a plateau. These tendencies can be related to a recrystallization phenomenon occurring due to thermal cycling. More generally, the proposed methodology could be applied to other frozen porous products during freezing and frozen storage. • First study of ice crystal formation and growth in a sponge cake during freezing and storage. • In-situ freezing and thermal cycling were performed inside a laboratory X-ray μCT apparatus. • Dynamic X-ray μCT and Digital Volumetric Correlation were implemented to quantify ice crystals. • Ice crystals were located at the pore surface and their size increased by recrystallization due to the thermal cycling.

Strong Ocean/Sea‐Ice Contrasts Observed in Satellite‐Derived Ice Crystal Number Concentrations in Arctic Ice Boundary‐Layer Clouds

AbstractThe Arctic climate changes at a faster rate than the rest of the globe. Boundary‐layer clouds may play an important role in this change. At temperatures below 0°C, mixed‐phase clouds exist and their phase and longevity is influenced by the abundance of ice crystals, which in turn is a function of aerosols serving as ice nucleating particles (INPs). Previous in situ studies suggested a local source of INPs due to biological activity over open ocean. Here we investigate ice crystal concentrations in clouds below 2 km at a large scale, by exploiting a newly developed data set—DARDAR‐Nice—retrieved from active satellite remote sensing. The data set spans from 2006 to 2016. Contrary to previous expectation, we find that at a given latitude and temperature, there are more ice crystals over sea ice than over open ocean. This enhancement is particularly found in clouds south of 70°N, and also at temperatures between 0°C and −10°C.

Characteristics of Precipitation Particles and Microphysical Processes during the 11–12 January 2020 Ice Pellet Storm in the Montréal Area, Québec, Canada

Abstract Freezing rain and ice pellets are particularly difficult to forecast when solid precipitation is completely melted aloft. This study addresses this issue by investigating the processes that led to a long-duration ice pellet event in Montreal, Québec, Canada, on 11–12 January 2020. To do so, a benchmark model initialized with ERA5 data is used to show that solid precipitation was completely melted below the melting layer, which discards partial melting from the possible ice pellet formation processes. Macro photography of precipitation reveals that small columnar crystals (∼200 μm) and ice pellets occurred simultaneously for more than 10 h. The estimation of ice crystal number concentration using macro photographs and laser-optical disdrometer data suggests that all supercooled drops could have refrozen by contact freezing with ice crystals. Rimed ice pellets also indicate ice supersaturation in the subfreezing layer. Given these observations, the formation of ice pellets and ice crystals was probably promoted by secondary ice production and the horizontal advection of ice crystals below the melting layer, as we illustrate using a conceptual model. Overall, these findings demonstrate how ice nucleation processes at temperatures near 0°C can drastically change the precipitation phase and the impact of a storm. Significance Statement Ice pellets are generally formed when snow particles partially melt while falling through a warm layer aloft before completely refreezing in a cold layer closer to the surface. Ice pellets can also be formed when snow particles completely melt aloft, but freezing rain is often produced in such conditions. On 11–12 January 2020, ice pellets were produced during more than 10 h in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. Macro photographs of the precipitation particles show that ice pellets occurred simultaneously with small ice crystals. Most of the ice pellets were produced while snow particles were completely melted aloft. The supercooled drops probably refroze due to collisions with the ice crystals that could have been advected by the northeasterly winds near the surface.

Decreased Aviation Leads to Increased Ice Crystal Number and a Positive Radiative Effect in Cirrus Clouds

AbstractTravel restrictions in the wake of the COVID‐19 pandemic resulted in an unprecedented decrease of 73% in global flight mileage in April–May 2020 compared to 2019. Here we examine the CALIPSO satellite observations and do not find a significant increase in ice crystal number concentrations (Ni) in cirrus clouds in the mid‐latitudes of the Northern Hemisphere, which might be expected due to an increase in homogeneous freezing when soot from aircraft emissions is reduced. Nevertheless this result is consistent with our model simulations, so do not rule out a positive forcing if reductions in aircraft emissions continue. A relatively small positive global average radiative effect of 21 mW m−2 is estimated if a decrease in aircraft traffic continues, with an average of up to 64 mW m−2 over the area where aviation is most active. We infer from this analysis that the worldwide adoption of biofuel blending in aircraft fuels that lead to smaller soot emissions could lead to a significant change in the microphysical properties of cirrus clouds but a rather small positive radiative effect.