Cloud water content

Sea ice SSM/I, ERS-2, ASARE/ENVISAT, MODIS/EOS-Terra/ Aqua. Data of SSM/I can be used to study wind speed trends at a height of 10 m, water vapor, cloud water content, and rain rate, and to assess the state and movement of ice. 

Caltech unified GCM (Global) Bulk liquid and ice in both stratiform and subgrid convective clouds Diagnosed from predicted cloud water content single size distribution constant cloud droplet number based on observations None None Simulated based on MIE theory with different parametrizations for liquid and ice clouds... 

The statistical collection and representation of the weather conditions for a specified area during a specified time interval, usually decades, together with a description of the state of the external system or boundary conditions. The properties that characterize the climate are thermal (temperatures of the surface air, water, land, and ice), kinetic (wind and ocean currents, together with associated vertical motions and the motions of air masses, aqueous humidity, cloudiness and cloud water content, groundwater, lake lands, and water content of snow on land and sea ice), nd static (pressure and density of the atmosphere and ocean, composition of the dry ir, salinity of the oceans, and the geometric boundaries and physical constants of the system). These properties are interconnected by the various physical processes such as precipitation, evaporation, infrared radiation, convection, advection, and turbulence, climate change... 

Strom, J., J. Heintzenberg, K. J. Noone, K. B. Noone, J. A. Ogren, F. Albers and M. Quante. Small Crystals in Cirrus Clouds Their Residue Size Distribution, Cloud Water Content, and Related Cloud Properties. J. Atmos. Res. 32, 125-141. 1994. 

The tendency to separate is expressed most often by the cloud point, the temperature at which the fuei-alcohol mixture loses its clarity, the first symptom of insolubility. Figure 5.17 gives an example of how the cloud-point temperature changes with the water content for different mixtures of gasoline and methanol. It appears that for a total water content of 500 ppm, that which can be easily observed considering the hydroscopic character of methanol, instability arrives when the temperature approaches 0°C. This situation is unacceptable and is the reason that incorporating methanol in a fuel implies that it be accompanied by a cosolvent. One of the most effective in this domain is tertiary butyl alcohol, TBA. Thus a mixture of 3% methanol and 2% TBA has been used for several years in Germany without noticeable incident. 

When polypyrrole was electrogenerated from dry acetonitrile electrolytes, a black polymer grew and adhered to the electrode. After a few seconds of electropolymerization, a black cloud was observed around the electrode. The film obtained had poor electrochemical and physical properties. Increasing the water content to 2% (w/w) gives, at 800 mV, films with improved properties. The black cloud around the electrode disappears. 

In the mid-latitude region depicted in Fig. 7-5, the motion is characterized by large-scale eddy transport." Here the "eddies" are recognizable as ordinary high- and low-pressure weather systems, typically about 10 km in horizontal dimension. These eddies actually mix air from the polar regions with air from nearer the equator. At times, air parcels with different water content, different chemical composition and different thermodynamic characteristics are brought into contact. When cold dry air is mixed with warm moist air, clouds and precipitation occur. A frontal system is said to exist. Two such frontal systems are depicted in Fig. 7-5 (heavy lines in the midwest and southeast). 

We see from this diagram that partial pressures of H2O at ordinary conditions range from very small values to perhaps 30 or 40 mbar. This corresponds to a mass concentration range up to about 25 g H20/m. In typical clouds, relatively little of this is in the condensed phase. Liquid water contents in the wettest of cumulus clouds are around a few grams per cubic meter ordinary mid-latitude stratus clouds have 0.3-1 g/m. ... 

Fig. 16-4 pH sensitivity to SO4- and NH4. Model calculations of expected pH of cloud water or rainwater for cloud liquid water content of 0.5 g/m. 100 pptv SO2, 330 ppmv CO2, and NO3. The abscissa shows the assumed input of aerosol sulfate in fig/m and the ordinate shows the calculated equilibrium pH. Each line corresponds to the indicated amoimt of total NH3 + NH4 in imits of fig/m of cloudy air. Solid lines are at 278 K, dashed ones are at 298 K. The familiar shape of titration curves is evident, with a steep drop in pH as the anion concentration increases due to increased input of H2SO4. (From Charlson, R. J., C. H. Twohy and P. K. Quinn, Physical Influences of Altitude on the Chemical Properties of Clouds and of Water Deposited from the Atmosphere." NATO Advanced Research Workshop Acid Deposition Processes at High Elevation Sites, Sept. 1986. Edinburgh, Scotland.)... 

The total wet deposition flux consists of 2 contributory factors. The first derives from the continuous transfer of Hg to cloud water, described by chemistry models. There are 2 limiting factors 1) the uptake of gas phase Hg(0), which is regulated by the Hemy s corrstant and 2) the subsequent oxidation of Hg(0) to Hg(ll), which is governed by reaction rate constants and the irritial concentratiorrs of the oxidant species. The total flirx depends on the hquid water content of the cloud and the percentage of the droplets in the cloud that reach the Earth s surface. 

K2. Keily, D. P., Measurement of drop size distribution and liquid water content in natural clouds, Dept, of Meteorol., Mass. Inst, of Tech., Contr. No. AF19(628)-259, NASA Rept. No. N64-30005 (1964). 

In the atmosphere, suspended aqueous solutions are present in the form of aerosols, clouds, fogs, and rain. However, these have different liquid water contents (i.e., grams of H20(l) per cubic meter of air). As discussed in detail in Chapter 9, fine particles (< 2-yxm diameter) emitted directly into the air or formed by chemical reactions can remain suspended for long periods of time. Many of these particles contain water, either in the form of dilute aqueous solutions or as thin films covering an insoluble core as much as 50% of the mass may be liquid water. Since the total particulate mass in this size range per cubic meter of air can be as high as 10 4 g m-3 or more, the liquid water content due to these small particles is also of this order of magnitude. 

Clouds, fogs, and rain, however, have much greater liquid water contents and thus have the potential for contributing more to atmospheric aqueous-phase oxidations. Clouds typically have liquid water contents of the order of 1 g m-3, with droplet diameters of the order of 5-50 yxm the number concentration and size distribution depend on the type of cloud. Fogs, on the... 

The reason that the aqueous-phase concentrations in fogs can be so high is related in part to the liquid water content (LWC), which is a major difference between clouds and fogs. The liquid water content for fogs is typically of the order of 0.1 g m-3 of air, whereas that for clouds is about an order of magnitude higher. This small LWC in fogs corresponds to increased solute concentrations. 

It was assumed that there were no limitations on the rates of oxidation due to mass transport as discussed in detail by Schwartz and Freiberg (1981), this assumption is justified except for very large droplets (> 10 yarn) and high pollutant concentrations (e.g., 03 at 0.5 ppm) where the aqueous-phase reactions are very fast. It was also assumed that the aqueous phase present in the atmosphere was a cloud with a liquid water content (V) of 1 g m-3 of air. As seen earlier, the latter factor is important in the aqueous-phase rates of conversion of S(IV) thus the actual concentrations of iron, manganese, and so on in the liquid phase and hence the kinetics of the reactions depend on the liquid water content. 

Effect of aerosol particles on cloud drop number concentrations and size distributions Clouds and fogs are characterized by their droplet size distribution as well as their liquid water content. Fog droplets typically have radii in the range from a few /an to 30-40 /an and liquid water contents in the range of 0.05-0.1 g m" Clouds generally have droplet radii from 5 /an up to 100 /im, with typical liquid water contents of 0.05-2.5 gin"5 (e.g., see Stephens, 1978, 1979). For a description of cloud types, mechanisms of formation, and characteristics, see Wallace and Hobbs (1977), Pruppacher (1986), Cotton and Anthes (1989), Heyms-field (1993), and Pruppacher and Klett (1997). 

Another piece of evidence for anthropogenic emissions leading to increased CCN and hence effects on cloud properties such as albedo and extent is found in ship tracks. These are lines of clouds that trace ship movements, either in initially cloud-free regions (Conover, 1966 Platnick and Twomey et al., 1994) or superimposed on preexisting clouds (Coakley et al., 1987). Emissions associated with the ship exhausts serve as CCN. This allows clouds to form where the background CCN concentration is too small for cloud formation. Alternatively, the CCN can modify existing cloud properties in the exhaust plume by changing the number and size distribution of the cloud droplets as well as the liquid water content (e.g., Ferek et al., 1998). 

FIGURE 14-44 Effect of ship emissions on (a) cloud number concentration, N, (b) effective cloud droplet radius, / cM, (c) cloud liquid water content, LWC, and (d, e) down- and upwelling radiation at (d) 744 nm and (e) 2.2 /im (adapted from King el al., 1993). 

The operating principle of the CSIRO (Australian Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organization) King probe (Particle Measuring Systems Inc., Boulder, Colorado) is similar in concept to that of the Johnson-Williams probe. The King probe measures the amount of power necessary to maintain a heated wire at a constant temperature, whereas the Johnson-Williams probe measures the change in resistance due to cooling of the wire by water evaporation. The probe consists of a heated coil of wire that is maintained at a constant temperature. The amount of excess power required to maintain the wire at this temperature when it is impacted by water droplets is measured and is proportional to the cloud liquid water content. The nominal response time of the instrument is 0.05 s, and it has an accuracy of 20%. This instrument uses less power than a Johnson-Williams probe, an important consideration in aircraft applications. 

A third commonly used method for determining cloud liquid water content is integration of the droplet size spectrum as measured by a PMS FSSP probe. Estimates of cloud liquid water content using this technique are subject to large errors due to uncertainties in determining the number concentrations of droplets in the largest size ranges. 

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