Picture is looking out the front of University of Wyoming King Air, approaching a wave cloud. Air flow is right to left ?? m/s. Temperature ??.
Cloud dimension ?? updraft downdraft LWC ice conc
Studies of ice formation in wave clouds were conducted in Colorado and Wyoming during March 2000 using the University of Wyoming King Air and aerosol instrumentation from Colorado State University. Ten flights were made, and measurements were obtained for microphysical, thermodynamic, and kinematic properties. Cloud temperatures ranged from -10 to -35C. Aerosol properties (IN, CN and CCN) were also measured.
The relatively well defined vertical motions and simple air trajectories in these wave clouds can be used for estimating parcel trajectories. This approach provides a basis for microphysical parcel modeling to examine the formation of ice crystals and cloud droplets and to compare observations with theoretical predictions.
As expected, the observations show a general trend of ice crystal number concentrations increasing at colder temperatures, although the scatter is a factor ~10x. A central question is whether any of this scatter can be explained from changes in the aerosol. This talk presents observations and examples from modeling studies.