Research aircraft that are equipped with in-situ cloud microphysics probes and millimeter radars, similar to the one used in this study, provide coincident and closely spaced radar and cloud microphysics dataset (e.g., Wolde and Vali 2002), which will be very useful to develop and validate radar based cloud microphysics retrieval methodologies using space and ground based radars. This paper pre...

The terrestrial atmospheric electrical system covers a range of dimensional scales, from charged molecular clusters to convective cloud systems. Charge-exchange associated with thunderclouds leads to positive charge in the upper conductive regions of the atmosphere and a net negative charge on the planetary surface. In non-thunderstorm regions, a vertical ionic current flows, replenishing the a...

Deep convective cloud content, precipitation distribution and rate, dynamics, and radiative fluxes are known to be sensitive to the details of liquidand ice-phase cloud microphysical processes. Previous studies have explored the multivariate convective response to changes in cloud microphysical parameter values in a framework that isolated the cloud and radiation schemes from the thermodynamic ...

SUMMARY Using a detailed line-by-line, multiple-scattering solar radiative-transfer model, the influences due to cloud internal inhomogeneity in the vertical upon the solar radiative transfer are investigated. In particular, the consequences due to non-uniform vertical profiles of liquid water and droplet sizes within low clouds are explored in a systematic manner. The fine structure of the spe...

1. Introduction Spectral (bin) microphysical cloud models have been successfully used for the investigation of different microphysical processes (e. Advances in spectral bin microphysics model development have been achieved in China. For example, cloud droplets are categorized into several bins in a one-dimensional time-dependant model for warm clouds (e.g., Xiao et al., 1988a, b). The water dr...

During the past decade, both research and operational numerical weather prediction models [e.g. the Weather Research and Forecasting Model (WRF)] have started using more complex microphysical schemes originally developed for high-resolution cloud resolving models (CRMs) with 1-2 km or less horizontal resolutions. WRF is a next-generation meso-scale forecast model and assimilation system. It inc...

3 This paper introduces an idealized general circulation model (GCM) in which water vapor 4 and clouds are tracked as tracers, but are not allowed to affect circulation either through 5 latent heat release or cloud radiative effects. The cloud scheme includes an explicit treatment 6 of cloud microphysics and diagnoses cloud fraction from a prescribed sub-grid distribution 7 of total water. The ...

In addition to the new cirrus cloud scheme described in Sect. 2.2, a prognostic cloud droplet number concentration (nl) equation for liquid clouds is added in the version of CAM3 used in this study compared with the version used in Liu et al. (2007a). Together with the prognostic liquid water mass (ql), ice water mass (qi), and ice crystal number concentration (ni), the complete set of equation...

In this two-part study, the relationships between the width of the cloud droplet size distribution and the microphysical processes and cloud characteristics of nonprecipitating shallow cumulus clouds are investigated using large-eddy simulations. In Part I, simulations are run with a bin microphysics scheme and the relative widths (standard deviation divided by mean diameter) of the simulated c...

Figure 1 summarizes the various cloud variables and their interactions. Precipitating cloud species are distinguished from non-precipitating species, and the liquid phase is distinguished from the ice phase. The size of the nonprecipitating cloud particles (which influences both the cloud radiative properties and the conversion of nonprecipitating cloud species to precipitating species) is dete...