[1] During the Marine Stratus/Stratocumulus Experiment, cloud and aerosol microphysics were measured in the eastern Pacific off the coast of northern California on board Department of Energy Gulfstream-1 in July 2005. Three cases with uniform aerosol concentration and minimal drizzle concentration were examined to study cloud microphysical behavior. For these three cases, the average droplet nu...

Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures ◭ ◮ ◭ ◮ Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract Introduction Conclusions References Tables Figures ◭ ◮ ◭ ◮ Back Close Full Screen / Esc Abstract Aerosols affect the climate system by changing cloud characteristics in many ways. They act as cloud condensation and ice nuclei and may have an influence on the hydrological cycle. Here we investigate a...

Mixed-phase clouds are composed of a mixture of cloud droplets and ice crystals. The cloud microphysics in mixed-phase clouds can significantly impact cloud optical depth, cloud radiative forcing, and cloud coverage. However, the treatment of mixed-phase clouds in most current climate models is crude and the partitioning of condensed water into liquid droplets and ice crystals is prescribed as ...

Clouds are the largest source of uncertainty in climate science, and remain a weak link in modeling tropical circulation. A major challenge is to establish connections between particulate microphysics and macroscale turbulent dynamics in cumulus clouds. Here we address the issue from the latter standpoint. First we show how to create bench-scale flows that reproduce a variety of cumulus-cloud f...

The new double-moment microphysics scheme described in Part I of this paper is implemented into a single-column model to simulate clouds and radiation observed during the period 1 April–15 May 1998 of the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic (SHEBA) and First International Satellite Cloud Climatology Project (ISCCP) Regional Experiment–Arctic Clouds Experiment (FIRE–ACE) field projects. Mean predi...

Abstract Observations from spaceborne microwave (MW) and infrared (IR) passive sensors are the backbone of current satellite meteorology, essential for data assimilation into modern numerical weather prediction climate benchmarking. While MW IR observations space offer complementary features with respect to cloud properties, their synergy investigation is currently underexplored, despite presen...

A GCM cloud microphysics parameterization is tested and improved using the CCCMA single-column model with cloud properties obtained at the Surface Heat Budget of the Arctic Ocean experiment (SHEBA) during the period of November 1997 to September 1998. The ECMWF reanalysis water vapor profile is scaled with rawinsonde data so that the new relative humidity profiles are compatible with rawinsonde...

Single-moment microphysics schemes have long enjoyed popularity for their simplicity and efficiency. However, in this article it is argued through theoretical considerations, idealized thunderstorm simulations, and radiative–convective equilibrium (RCE) simulations that the assumptions inherent in these parameterizations can induce large errors in the proper representation of clouds and their f...