European Facility For Airborne Research

European Facility For Airborne Research Dec. 9, 2024, 14:16

Document

Description
Title Laboratory and modeling studies of cloud–clear air interfacial mixing: anisotropy of small-scale turbulence due to evaporative cooling
Type Publication
Abstract:

Small-scale mixing between cloudy air and unsaturated clear air is investigated in numerical simulations and in a laboratory cloud chamber. Despite substantial differences in physical conditions and some differences in resolved scales of motion, results of both studies indicate that small-scale turbulence generated through cloud–clear air interfacial mixing is highly anisotropic. For velocity fluctuations, numerical simulations and cloud chamber observations demonstrate that the vertical velocity variance is up to a factor of two larger than the horizontal velocity variance. The Taylor microscales calculated separately for the horizontal and vertical directions also indicate anisotropy of turbulent eddies. This anisotropy is attributed to production of turbulent kinetic energy (TKE) by buoyancy forces due to evaporative cooling of cloud droplets at the cloud–clear air interface. Numerical simulations quantify the effects of buoyancy oscillations relative to the values expected from adiabatic and isobaric mixing, standardly assumed in cloud physics. The buoyancy oscillations result from microscale transport of liquid water due to the gravitational sedimentation of cloud droplets. In the particular modeling setup considered here, these oscillations contribute to about a fifth of the total TKE production.

Available from http://iopscience.iop.org/article/10.1088/1367-2630/10/7/075020
Author
MALINOWSKI Szymon
M. Andrejczuk, W. W. Grabowski, P. Korczyk, T. A. Kowalewski, P. K. Smolarkiewicz
Reference
Journal New Journal of Physics
Volume 10
Pages
Year 2008
Times cited 10
Institute country Poland
Type of science
  • Atmospheric dynamics (includes thermodynamics)
Field of science
  • Troposphere
File details
Added Feb. 15, 2010, 00:00
Last update Nov. 20, 2023, 14:41
Size 3.7 MB
File name njp8_7_075020.pdf
Visibility Public - Available for any user
Links with specific subjects

Go to the document list

Back to top
Copyright © 2024 EUFAR All rights reserved.