The microphysical properties of a sea-fog event along the west coast of the yellow sea in spring

Abstract

The microphysics and visibility of a sea-fog event were measured at the Qingdao Meteorological Station (QDMS) (120°19′ E, 36°04′ N) from April 5 to April 8, 2017. The two foggy periods with low visibility (<200 m) lasted 31 hours together. The mean value of the average liquid water content (LWC) was 0.057 g m-3, and the mean value of the number concentration (NUM) was 64.4 cm-3. We found that although large droplets only constituted a small portion of the total number of the concentration; they contributed the majority of the LWC and therefore determined ~76% of total extinction of the visibility. The observed droplet-size distribution (DSD) exhibited a new bimodal Gaussian (G-exponential) distribution function, rather than the well-accepted Gamma distribution. This work suggests a new distribution function to describe fog DSD, which may help to improve the microphysical parameterization for the Yellow Sea fog numerical forecasting.