Highlights will be written for high-level accomplishments and published journal articles of ASR research. Each ASR principal investigator (PI) is expected to submit at least one highlight per fiscal year.
Research Highlights
Recent Highlights
Turbulence and density currents below heavily precipitating marine stratocumulus clouds.
20 October 2020
Ghate, Virendra Prakash; Cadeddu, Maria Paola
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
Downdrafts associated with heavy drizzle in stratocumulus clouds can bring colder air within the cloud layer to the surface. We have combined data from multiple instruments to characterize the coupling between rain rates, downdrafts. and changes in surface meteorological fields.
Observational constraints of particle dry deposition and their impact on radiative effect estimates
19 October 2020
Farmer, Delphine
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
We collected extensive observations of particle fluxes over a forest and a grassland, and used those observations to directly improve model parameterizations of deposition processes. We show that these improvements have substantial impact on radiative effect estimates.
Variability of ice hydrometeor shapes with temperature
9 October 2020
Matrosov, Sergey; de Boer, Gijs
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
A polarimetric radar-based method to retrieve atmospheric particle shapes was applied to measurements of precipitating ice and mixed-phase clouds in the Arctic. Retrieval results were statistically analyzed to evaluate variability of ice hydrometeor aspect ratios (i.e., the ratios of particle minor to major dimensions) in the vertical column as a [...]
How many particles do we need to measure aerosol mixing state?
25 September 2020
Riemer, Nicole; West, Matthew
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Properties
Single-particle instruments are used in many field campaigns to measure the detailed chemical composition of individual aerosol particles in the atmosphere. The question arises of how many particles do we need to sample to accurately characterize how the chemical species are distributed between particles? In this study we answered this [...]
Characterizing subsiding shells in shallow cumulus using Doppler lidar
18 September 2020
McMichael, Lucas
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Distributions/Characterizations
Shallow cumulus clouds—the low-altitude puffy clouds—are represented in Earth system models (ESMs) by assuming that the effects of these clouds can be separated into two parts: the clouds themselves and the cloud-free air surrounding them. Recent observations of a moist, subsiding buffer region between the cloud and its surrounding environment [...]