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    Evidence for inertial droplet clustering in weakly turbulent clouds
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Lehmann, Katrin; Siebert, Holger; Wendisch, Manfred; Shaw, Raymond A.
    Simultaneous observations of cloud droplet spatial statistics, cloud droplet size distribution and cloud turbulence were made during several cloud passages, including cumulus clouds and a stratus cloud. They provide evidence that inertial droplet clustering occurs even in weakly turbulent clouds. The measurements were made from the Airborne Cloud Turbulence Observation System suspended from a tethered balloon. For a profile through a stratus cloud with gradually changing droplet Stokes number, droplet clustering, quantified by the pair correlation function, is observed to be positively correlated with the droplet Stokes number. This implies that the droplet collision rate, which is relevant to drizzle formation via droplet coalescence, depends not only on the droplet size distribution, but also on the cloud turbulence. For cumulus clouds, the relation between droplet clustering and Stokes number seems more complicated. Stokes number is determined by measuring droplet size and local energy dissipation rate, the latter requiring highresolution air velocity measurements not possible on fast-flying aircraft.
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    Horizontal homogeneity and vertical extent of new particle formation events
    (Milton Park : Taylor & Francis, 2017) Wehner, Birgit; Siebert, Holger; Stratmann, Frank; Tuch, Thomas; Wiedensohler, Alfred; PetäJä, Tuukka; Dal Maso, Miikka; Kulmala, Markku
    During the SATURN campaign 2002, new particle formation, i.e. the occurrence of ultrafine particles was investigated simultaneously at four ground-based measurement sites. The maximum distance between the sites was 50 km. Additionally, vertical profiles of aerosol particles from 5–10 nm have been measured by a tethered-balloonborne system at one of the sites. In general, two different scenarios have been found: (i) new particle formation was measured at all sites nearly in parallel with subsequent particle growth (homogeneous case) and (ii) new particle formation was observed at one to three sites irregularly (inhomogeneous case) where subsequent particle growth was often interrupted. The homogeneous case was connected with stable synoptical conditions, i.e. the region was influenced by a high pressure system. Here, the horizontal extent of the phenomenon has been estimated to be 400 km at maximum. In the vertical dimension, the ultrafine particles are well mixed within the entire boundary layer. In the inhomogeneous case the new particle formation depends mainly on the incoming solar radiation and was often interrupted due the occurrence of clouds. Thus, single point measurements are not representative for a larger region in that case.