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
Evaluating and improving convective microphysics parameterization in global climate models
13 May 2021
Fu, Qiang
Supported by:
Research area: General Circulation and Single Column Models/Parameterizations
Convection parameterization remains at the core of large-scale atmospheric modeling. However, cloud microphysics in most convection schemes is often ignored or oversimplified. Partitioning deep convective cloud condensates into components that sediment and detrain, which is important for anvil cloud properties, is sensitive to cloud hydrometeor sedimentation as well as convective [...]
A new option for determining aerosol absorption from wildfires
5 May 2021
Schmid, Beat
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Properties
Only a few techniques measure aerosol absorption coefficients—the light absorbed by aerosols. This leaves a gap in understanding around aerosol optical properties. Simultaneous transmission/absorption photometry, or STAP, is a new method to measure absorption coefficients of stored samples of collected particles on filters in laboratory settings. STAP uses the radiation [...]
Better representing turbulence improves soil particle simulation
28 April 2021
Burrows, Susannah M.
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
Agricultural activities, such as harvesting and tilling, can lift large amounts of soil particles into the air. Daytime surface heating leads to turbulent mixing in the lower levels of the atmosphere, which can affect the how long these particles remain in the air, known as lifetime, and how far they [...]
Accurate and analytic expressions for the dew point and frost points
20 April 2021
Romps, David
Supported by:
Research area: Radiation Processes
The dew point is the temperature to which air must be cooled at constant pressure for dew to form (or, more precisely, to reach saturation with respect to a plane of liquid water). It is a function of the air temperature and relative humidity, and it is usually calculated using [...]
Sub-cloud turbulence explains cloud-base updrafts
19 April 2021
Zheng, Youtong
Supported by:
Research area: Vertical Velocity
We provide the first observational evidence that the more energetic the airs are below the clouds, the faster the clouds are rising.