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

• Main Author: Wieder, Jörg
• Format: Text
• Language: English
• Published: ETH Zurich 2022
• Subjects: CLOUDS METEOROLOGY; Aerosols and Clouds; Aerosols; Ice Nucleation; Ice Nucleating Particles; Ice nuclei; PRECIPITATION/INFLUENCE OF TOPOGRAPHY METEOROLOGY; Orographic clouds; Orographic precipitation; METEOROLOGY; Arctic; Arctic clouds; ALPS EUROPEAN MOUNTAINS; Field measurements; Climate; infoeu-repo/classification/ddc/550; Earth sciences
• Online Access: https://dx.doi.org/10.3929/ethz-b-000565134; http://hdl.handle.net/20.500.11850/565134

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 ...