Ice formation in remote regions: From nucleation to multiplication: Insights from combining in situ measurements with remote sensing observations ...

Clouds, with their global average spatial coverage of nearly 70%, are an important constituent in Earth’s atmosphere. Clouds redistribute fresh water and alter Earth’s radiative balance, thus, impacting the climate. Both precipitation formation and the radiative response of clouds are strongly relat...

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Bibliographic Details
Main Author: Wieder, Jörg
Format: Text
Language:English
Published: ETH Zurich 2022
Subjects:
Online Access:https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000565134
http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/565134
Description
Summary:Clouds, with their global average spatial coverage of nearly 70%, are an important constituent in Earth’s atmosphere. Clouds redistribute fresh water and alter Earth’s radiative balance, thus, impacting the climate. Both precipitation formation and the radiative response of clouds are strongly related to the fraction of ice in them. The varying abundance of aerosol particles needed for cloud formation and the complex interplay between cloud particles during cloud evolution complicate an accurate representation of clouds in weather and climate models. This is especially critical in orographic regions, which frequently trigger precipitation, and in highly climate sensitive regions like the Arctic, which currently experiences warming at an unprecedented rate. In these regions, mixed-phase clouds (MPCs) consisting of ice crystals and supercooled cloud droplets are frequently ob- served and persistently prevail. In an MPC, ice nucleating particles (INPs), a subclass of atmospheric aerosol particles, are needed ...