Coalescence scavenging drives droplet number concentration in Southern Ocean low clouds

Cloud droplet number concentration (N-d) is a key microphysical property that is largely controlled by the balance between sources and sinks of aerosols that serve as cloud condensation nuclei (CCN). Despite being a key sink of CCN, the impact of coalescence scavenging on Southern Ocean (SO) cloud is poorly known. We apply a simple source-and-sink budget model based on parameterizations to austral summer aircraft observations to test model behavior and examine the relative influence of processes that determine N-d in SO stratocumulus clouds. The model predicts N-d with little bias and a correlation coefficient of similar to 0.7 compared with observations. Coalescence scavenging is found to be an important sink of CCN in both liquid and mixed-phase precipitating stratocumulus and reduces the predicted N-d by as much as 90% depending on the precipitation rate. The free tropospheric aerosol source controls N-d more strongly than the surface aerosol source during austral summer.

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Copyright 2022 American Geophysical Union.


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Author Kang, L.
Marchand, R. T.
Wood, R.
McCoy, Isabel L.
Publisher UCAR/NCAR - Library
Publication Date 2022-04-16T00:00:00
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Topic Category geoscientificInformation
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Metadata Date 2023-08-18T18:18:36.252930
Metadata Record Identifier edu.ucar.opensky::articles:25272
Metadata Language eng; USA
Suggested Citation Kang, L., Marchand, R. T., Wood, R., McCoy, Isabel L.. (2022). Coalescence scavenging drives droplet number concentration in Southern Ocean low clouds. UCAR/NCAR - Library. http://n2t.net/ark:/85065/d76m3bgr. Accessed 28 March 2024.

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