Radiative effects on the diffusional growth of ice particles in cirrus clouds

Abstract

At Colorado State University the Regional Atmospheric Modeling System (RAMS) has been used to study the radiative effect on the diffusional growth of ice particles in cirrus clouds. Using soundings extracted from a mesoscale simulation of the 26 November 1991 cirrus event, the radiative effect was studied using a two-dimensional cloud-resolving model (CRM) version of RAMS, coupled to an explicit bin-resolving microphysics. The CRM simulations of the 26 November 1991 cirrus event demonstrate that the radiative impact on the diffusional growth (or sublimation) of ice crystals is significant. Even in a radiatively cooled atmospheric environment, ice particles may experience radiative warming because the net radiation received by an ice particle depends upon the emission from the particle, and the local upwelling and downwelling radiative fluxes. Model results show that radiative feedbacks on the diffusional growth of ice particles can be very complex. Radiative warming of an ice particle will restrict the particle's diffusional growth. In the case of radiative warming, ice particles larger than a certain size will experience so much radiative warming that surface ice saturation vapor pressures become large enough to cause sublimation of the larger crystals, while smaller crystals are growing by vapor deposition. However, ice mas production can be enhanced in the case of radiative cooling of an ice particle. For the 26 November 1991 cirrus event, radiative feedback results in significant reduction in the total ice mass, especially in the production of large ice crystals, and consequently, both radiative and dynamic properties of the cirrus cloud are significantly affected.