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
Air pollution unable to intensify storms via warm-phase invigoration
13 January 2023
Romps, David
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud-Aerosol-Precipitation Interactions
Of the mechanisms proposed for how aerosols might invigorate storms, the observational evidence on supersaturation makes the warm-phase mechanism unlikely. An actively debated hypothesis is that air pollution from human activities regularly makes storms around the world more intense. In the "warm-phase invigoration mechanism," extra particles of air pollution (aerosols) release [...]
Sizing ice hydrometeors using the dual-wavelength radar ratio
5 January 2023
Matrosov, Sergey
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
The ice cloud feedback in weather and climate models is strongly affected by the size of cloud particles. The snowflake size information is also important for improving the accuracy of weather radar-based snowfall quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE) techniques. Measurements of dual-wavelength radar ratio (DWR, i.e., the ratio of radar reflectivities [...]
Mixing state of black-carbon particles from wildfires remains dynamic throughout their lifetime
15 November 2022
Sedlacek, Arthur J; Lewis, Ernie R.
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
The evolution of the mixing state of black carbon-containing particles formed by wildfires is characterized using field measurements. These particles rapidly (within an hour or so) attain a thick coating of organic material, but the majority of the lifetime of these particles is characterized by a slow loss of this [...]
Identification of the ice-nucleating agents in sea spray aerosol by microspectroscopic analysis
7 November 2022
Knopf, Daniel
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
Over the oceans, breaking waves and wind over the sea surface can loft sea spray aerosols (SSA) high enough into the atmosphere to reach clouds where they can form ice and play a role in modulating the Earth's radiation and water balances. Using X-ray microscopy, we demonstrate that SSA particles [...]
Assessing raindrop breakup parameterizations using disdrometer observations
3 November 2022
Dolan, Brenda; Saleeby, Stephen
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
This study compares the size and number concentration of raindrop populations from surface disdrometer observations and numerical models in order to understand their similarities and differences with the goal of improving model representation of rain drop size distributions.