The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates
The terminal velocity (V t ) of ice hydrometeors is of high importance to atmospheric modeling. V t is governed by the physical characteristics of a hydrometeor, including mass and projected area, as well as environmental conditions. When liquid hydrometeors coalesce to form larger hydrometeors, the...
Published in: | Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology |
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Online Access: | http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1612491 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1612491 https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 |
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ftosti:oai:osti.gov:1612491 2023-07-30T04:01:57+02:00 The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates Schmitt, Carl G. Sulia, Kara Lebo, Zachary J. Heymsfield, Andrew J. Przybyo, Vanessa Connolly, Paul 2020-07-23 application/pdf http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1612491 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1612491 https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 unknown http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1612491 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1612491 https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 doi:10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES 2020 ftosti https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 2023-07-11T09:41:23Z The terminal velocity (V t ) of ice hydrometeors is of high importance to atmospheric modeling. V t is governed by the physical characteristics of a hydrometeor, including mass and projected area, as well as environmental conditions. When liquid hydrometeors coalesce to form larger hydrometeors, the resulting hydrometeor can readily be characterized by its spherical or near-spherical shape. For ice hydrometeors, it is more complicated because of the variability of ice shapes possible in the atmosphere as well as the inherent randomness in the aggregation process, which leads to highly variable characteristics. The abundance of atmospheric processes affecting ice particle dimensional characteristics creates potential for highly variable V t for ice particles that are predicted or measured to be of the “same size.” In this article we explore the variability of ice hydrometeor V t both theoretically and through the use of experimental observations. Theoretically, the variability in V t is investigated by analyzing the microphysical characteristics of randomly aggregated hexagonal shapes. The modeled dimensional characteristics are then compared to aircraft probe measurements to constrain the variability in atmospheric ice hydrometeor V t . Results show that the spread in V t can be represented with Gaussian distributions relative to a mean. Variability expressed as the full width at half maximum of the normalized Gaussian probability distribution function is around 20%, with somewhat higher values associated with larger particle sizes and warmer temperatures. Finally, field campaigns where mostly convective clouds were sampled displayed low variability, while Arctic and midlatitude winter campaigns showed broader V t spectra. Other/Unknown Material Arctic SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) Arctic Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology 58 8 1751 1761 |
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SciTec Connect (Office of Scientific and Technical Information - OSTI, U.S. Department of Energy) |
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ftosti |
language |
unknown |
topic |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
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54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES Schmitt, Carl G. Sulia, Kara Lebo, Zachary J. Heymsfield, Andrew J. Przybyo, Vanessa Connolly, Paul The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates |
topic_facet |
54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES |
description |
The terminal velocity (V t ) of ice hydrometeors is of high importance to atmospheric modeling. V t is governed by the physical characteristics of a hydrometeor, including mass and projected area, as well as environmental conditions. When liquid hydrometeors coalesce to form larger hydrometeors, the resulting hydrometeor can readily be characterized by its spherical or near-spherical shape. For ice hydrometeors, it is more complicated because of the variability of ice shapes possible in the atmosphere as well as the inherent randomness in the aggregation process, which leads to highly variable characteristics. The abundance of atmospheric processes affecting ice particle dimensional characteristics creates potential for highly variable V t for ice particles that are predicted or measured to be of the “same size.” In this article we explore the variability of ice hydrometeor V t both theoretically and through the use of experimental observations. Theoretically, the variability in V t is investigated by analyzing the microphysical characteristics of randomly aggregated hexagonal shapes. The modeled dimensional characteristics are then compared to aircraft probe measurements to constrain the variability in atmospheric ice hydrometeor V t . Results show that the spread in V t can be represented with Gaussian distributions relative to a mean. Variability expressed as the full width at half maximum of the normalized Gaussian probability distribution function is around 20%, with somewhat higher values associated with larger particle sizes and warmer temperatures. Finally, field campaigns where mostly convective clouds were sampled displayed low variability, while Arctic and midlatitude winter campaigns showed broader V t spectra. |
author |
Schmitt, Carl G. Sulia, Kara Lebo, Zachary J. Heymsfield, Andrew J. Przybyo, Vanessa Connolly, Paul |
author_facet |
Schmitt, Carl G. Sulia, Kara Lebo, Zachary J. Heymsfield, Andrew J. Przybyo, Vanessa Connolly, Paul |
author_sort |
Schmitt, Carl G. |
title |
The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates |
title_short |
The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates |
title_full |
The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates |
title_fullStr |
The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates |
title_full_unstemmed |
The Fall Speed Variability of Similarly Sized Ice Particle Aggregates |
title_sort |
fall speed variability of similarly sized ice particle aggregates |
publishDate |
2020 |
url |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1612491 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1612491 https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 |
geographic |
Arctic |
geographic_facet |
Arctic |
genre |
Arctic |
genre_facet |
Arctic |
op_relation |
http://www.osti.gov/servlets/purl/1612491 https://www.osti.gov/biblio/1612491 https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 doi:10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 |
op_doi |
https://doi.org/10.1175/jamc-d-18-0291.1 |
container_title |
Journal of Applied Meteorology and Climatology |
container_volume |
58 |
container_issue |
8 |
container_start_page |
1751 |
op_container_end_page |
1761 |
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1772812688837050368 |