Identification

Title

A review of ice particle shapes in cirrus formed in situ and in anvils

Abstract

Results from 22 airborne field campaigns, including more than 10 million high-resolution particle images collected in cirrus formed in situ and in convective anvils, are interpreted in terms of particle shapes and their potential impact on radiative transfer. Emphasis is placed on characterizing ice particle shapes in tropical maritime and midlatitude continental anvil cirrus, as well as in cirrus formed in situ in the upper troposphere, and subvisible cirrus in the upper tropical troposphere layer. There is a distinctive difference in cirrus ice particle shapes formed in situ compared to those in anvils that are generated in close proximity to convection. More than half the mass in cirrus formed in situ are rosette shapes (polycrystals and bullet rosettes). Cirrus formed from fresh convective anvils is mostly devoid of rosette-shaped particles. However, small frozen drops may experience regrowth downwind of an aged anvil in a regime with RHice > similar to 120% and then grow into rosette shapes. Identifiable particle shapes in tropical maritime anvils that have not been impacted by continental influences typically contain mostly single plate-like and columnar crystals and aggregates. Midlatitude continental anvils contain single-rimed particles, more and larger aggregates with riming, and chains of small ice particles when in a highly electrified environment. The particles in subvisible cirrus are < similar to 100 mu m and quasi-spherical with some plates and rare trigonal shapes. Percentages of particle shapes and power laws relating mean particle area and mass to dimension are provided to improve parameterization of remote retrievals and numerical simulations.

Resource type

document

Resource locator

Unique resource identifier

code

https://n2t.org/ark:/85065/d7zw1q2r

codeSpace

Dataset language

eng

Spatial reference system

code identifying the spatial reference system

Classification of spatial data and services

Topic category

geoscientificInformation

Keywords

Keyword set

keyword value

Text

originating controlled vocabulary

title

Resource Type

reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2016-01-01T00:00:00Z

Geographic location

West bounding longitude

East bounding longitude

North bounding latitude

South bounding latitude

Temporal reference

Temporal extent

Begin position

End position

Dataset reference date

date type

publication

effective date

2019-09-01T00:00:00Z

Frequency of update

Quality and validity

Lineage

Conformity

Data format

name of format

version of format

Constraints related to access and use

Constraint set

Use constraints

Limitations on public access

None

Responsible organisations

Responsible party

contact position

OpenSky Support

organisation name

UCAR/NCAR - Library

full postal address

PO Box 3000

Boulder

80307-3000

email address

opensky@ucar.edu

web address

http://opensky.ucar.edu/

name: homepage

responsible party role

pointOfContact

Metadata on metadata

Metadata point of contact