Homogeneous Nucleation Rate for Highly Supercooled Cirrus Cloud Droplets

Abstract

A mixed-phase hydrometer growth model has been applied to determining the nucleation mode and rate responsible for the glaciation of a highly supercooled liquid cloud studied jointly by ground-based polarization lidar and aircraft in situ probes. The cloud droplets were detected at the base of an orographically induced cirrus cloud at temperatures between ?34.3° and ?37.3°C. The vertical distribution above cloud base of two independent data quantities, the aircraft-measured water and ice particle concentrations and the lidar linear depolarization ratio, have been compared to model predictions for both the homogeneous and heterogeneous drop-freezing. modes. It is concluded that, although activated ice nuclei may have contributed to the glaciation of the cloud, homogeneous nucleation was the dominant mode. Accordingly, a homogeneous nucleation rate ?106 times greater than that predicted by classical theory, but ?103 times less than laboratory measurements would suggest is found to be appropriate at the measured cloud temperatures.