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
Arctic warming by abundant fine sea salt aerosols from blowing snow
14 November 2023
Wang, Jian
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Properties
We found that the sublimation of blowing snow produces high concentrations of fine-mode sea salt particles with diameters below 300 nm. Between November and April, blowing snow occurs more than 20% of the time. Model simulations show that sea salt aerosols generated from blowing snow account for approximately 30% of [...]
Unraveling the continuous ice formation in arctic mixed-phase clouds with a novel column model
2 November 2023
Knopf, Daniel; Riemer, Nicole
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
Arctic mixed-phase clouds, wherein supercooled droplets and ice crystals coexist, play a crucial role in the arctic climate system, which is experiencing accelerated warming that is poorly captured by today's climate models. Arctic mixed-phase clouds are widespread and long-lived, with sustained ice crystal formation that challenges current understanding. The longevity [...]
Entrainment is locally inhomogeneous, but can appear globally homogeneous
18 October 2023
Cantrell, Will H.; Shaw, Raymond A
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
We show, through laboratory experiments, that when dry air mixes with cloudy air, some cloud droplets evaporate completely, leaving others unaffected. When viewed from the perspective of mixing differing proportions of dry and cloudy air, the mixing can seem as if all droplets respond to the same environment, each evaporating just a bit.
Convective inhibition explains regional differences in tropical precipitation
13 October 2023
Fast, Jerome D
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud-Aerosol-Precipitation Interactions
Understanding what controls rainfall in tropical regions is important for accurate climate modeling. A team examined radar-derived precipitation data from three tropical field campaigns and the corresponding large-scale environmental variables from global reanalysis data to quantify the roles of various environmental factors in the transition from a suppressed to an [...]
Partitioning ice nucleating particle measurements facilitates improved process-level understanding
13 October 2023
Burrows, Susannah M.
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Properties
Ice nucleating particles (INPs) are a rare subset of particles that can have an outsized impact on the climate. To simulate the effects of INPs, global climate models need to be able to accurately simulate the concentrations of particles known to be good INPs in the ambient atmosphere and include [...]