Cloud growth

M. Loewenstein, G. V. Ferry, K. R. Chan, and B. L. Gary, Particle Size Distributions in Arctic Polar Stratospheric Clouds, Growth, and Freezing of Sulfuric Acid Droplets, and Implications for Cloud Formation, J. Geophys. Res., 97, 8015-8034 (1992). 

Dye, J.E., Baumgardner, D., Gandrud, B.M., Kawa, S.R., Kelly, K.K., Loewenstein, M., Ferry, G.V., Chan. K.R., and Gary, B.L. (1992) Particle size distributions in Arctic polar stratospheric clouds, growth and freezing of sulfuric arid droplets, and implications for cloud fotmation, J. Geophys. Res. 97,8015-8034. 

The cloud chemistry simulation chamber (5,6) provides a controlled environment to simulate the ascent of a humid parcel of polluted air in the atmosphere. The cloud forms as the pressure and temperature of the moist air decreases. By controlling the physical conditions influencing cloud growth (i.e. initial temperature, relative humidity, cooling rate), and the size, composition, and concentration of suspended particles, chemical transformation rates of gases and particles to dissolved ions in the cloud water can be measured. These rates can be compared with those derived from physical/chemical models (7,9) which involve variables such as liquid water content, solute concentration, the gas/liquid interface, mass transfer, chemical equilibrium, temperature, and pressure. 

Unlike melting and the solid-solid phase transitions discussed in the next section, these phase changes are not reversible processes they occur because the crystal stmcture of the nanocrystal is metastable. For example, titania made in the nanophase always adopts the anatase stmcture. At higher temperatures the material spontaneously transfonns to the mtile bulk stable phase [211, 212 and 213]. The role of grain size in these metastable-stable transitions is not well established the issue is complicated by the fact that the transition is accompanied by grain growth which clouds the inteiyDretation of size-dependent data [214, 215 and 216]. In situ TEM studies, however, indicate that the surface chemistry of the nanocrystals play a cmcial role in the transition temperatures [217, 218]. 

The life persistency of a smoke cloud is deterrnined chiefly by wind and convection currents in the air. Ambient temperature also plays a part in the continuance or disappearance of fog oil smokes. Water vapor in the air has an important role in the formation of most chemically generated smokes, and high relative humidity improves the performance of these smokes. The water vapor not only exerts effects through hydrolysis, but it also assists the growth of hygroscopic (deliquescent) smoke particles to an effective size by a process of hydration. Smoke may be generated by mechanical, thermal, or chemical means, or by a combination of these processes (7). 

The air-mass thunderstorm is the least severe of all thunderstorms. In its simplest form, an air-mass thunderstorm grows as a single cell when solar radiation heats the surface air in an unstable atmosphere. Its life cycle lasts around 30 minutes. Towering cumulus clouds are formed as in-cloud updrafts push moisture upward. The tower may reach a height about five times the diameter of the cloud base in the growth phase. 

Twohy, C. H., Austin, P. H., and Charlson, R. J. (1989). Chemical consequences of the initial diffusional growth of cloud droplets a marine case. Tellus 4 (B), 51-50. 

Adsorption of water on salt crystals plays a key role in many atmospheric and environmental processes. Alkah halides in particular play an important role in the first stages of drop growth in clouds. To understand the atomistic details of the wetting and dissolution processes that take place in these crystals, we apphed SPFM to the smdy of the adsorption of water vapor on single crystal surfaces and the role of surface defects, such as steps. 

A much more detailed and time-dependent study of complex hydrocarbon and carbon cluster formation has been prepared by Bettens and Herbst,83 84 who considered the detailed growth of unsaturated hydrocarbons and clusters via ion-molecule and neutral-neutral processes under the conditions of both dense and diffuse interstellar clouds. In order to include molecules up to 64 carbon atoms in size, these authors increased the size of their gas-phase model to include approximately 10,000reactions. The products of many of the unstudied reactions have been estimated via simplified statistical (RRKM) calculations coupled with ab initio and semiempirical energy calculations. The simplified RRKM approach posits a transition state between complex and products even when no obvious potential barrier... 

The Na I D-lines have wavelengths and oscillator strengths A,i = 5896 A, /i = 1 /3, and X2 = 5889 A, f2 — 2/3. In a certain interstellar cloud, their equivalent widths are measured to be 230 mA and 370 mA respectively, with a maximum error of 30 mA in each case. Assuming a single cloud with a Gaussian velocity dispersion, use the exponential curve of growth to find preferred values of Na I column density and b, and approximate error limits for each of these two parameters. (Doublet ratio method.)... 

Fig. 12.15. Growth of metallicity with time in regions of differing overdensity, corresponding approximately to clusters of galaxies (5 = 103 thick curve), DLA and Lyman-limit systems (5 = 102 thinner curve), moderate-column-density Ly-a clouds (5 = 10 dotted curve) and low-column-density Ly-a clouds (8 = 0 dashed curve), The dot-dashed curve shows the global average. After Cen and Ostriker (1999). Courtesy Renyue Cen.

Silver iodide, 14 370, 22 671 in cloud seeding, 22 685 natural occurrence of, 22 668 Silver ion activity, in photographic crystal growth, 19 179 Silver-ion reduction... 

The interplay of these two basic rates determines the size of the resulting particles. For instance, the reason that snow flakes reach sizes of several cm at lower latitudes but arrive as extremely small crystals, called diamond dust in Antarctica, is that the nuclei that are formed in a cloud, will grow during their voyage to earth by adsorbing water molecules. Obviously, this growth will be more important in the moist atmosphere at low latitudes than in the extremely dry atmosphere above Antarctica. The same interplay of nucleation and growth determine the size of metal particles that are formed on a support by chemical reduction of adsorbed precursors, such as metal ions. Here... 

---