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- ItemGravity wave influence on NLC: Experimental results from ALOMAR, 69° N(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2013) Wilms, H.; Rapp, M.; Hoffmann, P.; Fiedler, J.; Baumgarten, G.The influence of gravity waves on noctilucent clouds (NLC) at ALOMAR (69° N) is analysed by relating gravity wave activity to NLC occurrence from common-volume measurements. Gravity wave kinetic energies are derived from MF-radar wind data and filtered into different period ranges by wavelet transformation. From the dataset covering the years 1999–2011, a direct correlation between gravity wave kinetic energy and NLC occurrence is not found, i.e., NLC appear independently of the simultaneously measured gravity wave kinetic energy. In addition, gravity wave activity is divided into weak and strong activity as compared to a 13 yr mean. The NLC occurrence rates during strong and weak activity are calculated separately for a given wave period and compared to each other. Again, for the full dataset no dependence of NLC occurrence on relative gravity wave activity is found. However, concentrating on 12 h of NLC detections during 2008, we do find an NLC-amplification with strong long-period gravity wave occurrence. Our analysis hence confirms previous findings that in general NLC at ALOMAR are not predominantly driven by gravity waves while exceptions to this rule are at least possible.
- ItemHigh-resolution measurement of cloud microphysics and turbulence at a mountaintop station(München : European Geopyhsical Union, 2015) Siebert, H.; Shaw, R.A.; Ditas, J.; Schmeissner, T.; Malinowski, S.P.; Bodenschatz, E.; Xu, H.Mountain research stations are advantageous not only for long-term sampling of cloud properties but also for measurements that are prohibitively difficult to perform on airborne platforms due to the large true air speed or adverse factors such as weight and complexity of the equipment necessary. Some cloud–turbulence measurements, especially Lagrangian in nature, fall into this category. We report results from simultaneous, high-resolution and collocated measurements of cloud microphysical and turbulence properties during several warm cloud events at the Umweltforschungsstation Schneefernerhaus (UFS) on Zugspitze in the German Alps. The data gathered were found to be representative of observations made with similar instrumentation in free clouds. The observed turbulence shared all features known for high-Reynolds-number flows: it exhibited approximately Gaussian fluctuations for all three velocity components, a clearly defined inertial subrange following Kolmogorov scaling (power spectrum, and second- and third-order Eulerian structure functions), and highly intermittent velocity gradients, as well as approximately lognormal kinetic energy dissipation rates. The clouds were observed to have liquid water contents on the order of 1 g m−3 and size distributions typical of continental clouds, sometimes exhibiting long positive tails indicative of large drop production through turbulent mixing or coalescence growth. Dimensionless parameters relevant to cloud–turbulence interactions, the Stokes number and settling parameter are in the range typically observed in atmospheric clouds. Observed fluctuations in droplet number concentration and diameter suggest a preference for inhomogeneous mixing. Finally, enhanced variance in liquid water content fluctuations is observed at high frequencies, and the scale break occurs at a value consistent with the independently estimated phase relaxation time from microphysical measurements.