Work

Gibbs states and Brownian models for coexisting haze and cloud droplets

Year: 2024

Type: article

Abstract: Cloud microphysics studies include how tiny cloud droplets grow and become rain. This is crucial for understanding cloud properties like size, life span, and impact on climate through radiative effects. Small weak-updraft clouds near the haze-to-cloud transition are especially difficult to measure and understand. They are abundant but hard to capture by satellites. Köhler's theory explains initial droplet growth but struggles with large particle groups. Here, we present a stochastic, analytical framework building on Köhler's theory to account for (monodisperse) aerosols and cloud droplet interaction through competitive growth in a limited water vapor field. These interactions are modeled by sink terms, while fluctuations in supersaturation affecting droplet growth are modeled by nonlinear white noise terms. Our results identify hysteresis mechanisms in the droplet activation and deactivation processes. Our approach allows for multimodal cloud's droplet size distributions supported by laboratory experiments, offering a different perspective on haze-to-cloud transition and small cloud formation.

Source: Science Advances

DOI: 10.1126/sciadv.adq7518

Authors: Manuel Santos Gutiérrez, Mickaël David Chekroun, Ilan Koren

Institutions: Weizmann Institute of Science, University of California, Los Angeles

Language: English

Topic: Atmospheric aerosols and clouds

Subfield: Global and Planetary Change

Field: Environmental Science

Domain: Physical Sciences

Open Access status: gold

Estimated APC paid: $4,500

Funder: European Commission