Cirrus Parcel Model Comparison Project. Phase 1: The Critical Components to Simulate Cirrus Initiation Explicitly

Abstract

The Cirrus Parcel Model Comparison Project, a project of the GCSS [Global Energy and Water Cycle Experiment (GEWEX) Cloud System Studies] Working Group on Cirrus Cloud Systems, involves the systematic comparison of current models of ice crystal nucleation and growth for specified, typical, cirrus cloud environments. In Phase 1 of the project reported here, simulated cirrus cloud microphysical properties from seven models are compared for ?warm? (?40°C) and ?cold? (?60°C) cirrus, each subject to updrafts of 0.04, 0.2, and 1 m s?1. The models employ explicit microphysical schemes wherein the size distribution of each class of particles (aerosols and ice crystals) is resolved into bins or the evolution of each individual particle is traced. Simulations are made including both homogeneous and heterogeneous ice nucleation mechanisms (all-mode simulations). A single initial aerosol population of sulfuric acid particles is prescribed for all simulations. Heterogeneous nucleation is disabled for a second parallel set of simulations in order to isolate the treatment of the homogeneous freezing (of haze droplets) nucleation process. Analysis of these latter simulations is the primary focus of this paper. Qualitative agreement is found for the homogeneous-nucleation-only simulations; for example, the number density of nucleated ice crystals increases with the strength of the prescribed updraft. However, significant quantitative differences are found. Detailed analysis reveals that the homogeneous nucleation rate, haze particle solution concentration, and water vapor uptake rate by ice crystal growth (particularly as controlled by the deposition coefficient) are critical components that lead to differences in the predicted microphysics. Systematic differences exist between results based on a modified classical theory approach and models using an effective freezing temperature approach to the treatment of nucleation. Each method is constrained by critical freezing data from laboratory studies, but each includes assumptions that can only be justified by further laboratory research. Consequently, it is not yet clear if the two approaches can be made consistent. Large haze particles may deviate considerably from equilibrium size in moderate to strong updrafts (0.2?1 m s?1) at ?60°C. The equilibrium assumption is commonly invoked in cirrus parcel models. The resulting difference in particle-size-dependent solution concentration of haze particles may significantly affect the ice particle formation rate during the initial nucleation interval. The uptake rate for water vapor excess by ice crystals is another key component regulating the total number of nucleated ice crystals. This rate, the product of particle number concentration and ice crystal diffusional growth rate, which is particularly sensitive to the deposition coefficient when ice particles are small, modulates the peak particle formation rate achieved in an air parcel and the duration of the active nucleation time period. The consequent differences in cloud microphysical properties, and thus cloud optical properties, between state-of-the-art models of ice crystal initiation are significant. Intermodel differences in the case of all-mode simulations are correspondingly greater than in the case of homogeneous nucleation acting alone. Definitive laboratory and atmospheric benchmark data are needed to improve the treatment of heterogeneous nucleation processes.