Quantifying the impact of dust on heterogeneous ice generation in midlevel supercooled stratiform clouds

Damao Zhang, Zhien Wang, Andrew Heymsfield, Jiwen Fan, Dong Liu, Ming Zhao
2012 Geophysical Research Letters  
1] Dust aerosols have been regarded as effective ice nuclei (IN), but large uncertainties regarding their efficiencies remain. Here, four years of collocated CALIPSO and CloudSat measurements are used to quantify the impact of dust on heterogeneous ice generation in midlevel supercooled stratiform clouds (MSSCs) over the 'dust belt'. The results show that the dusty MSSCs have an up to 20% higher mixed-phase cloud occurrence, up to 8 dBZ higher mean maximum Z e (Z e _max), and up to 11.5 g/m 2
more » ... gher ice water path (IWP) than similar MSSCs under background aerosol conditions. Assuming similar ice growth and fallout history in similar MSSCs, the significant differences in Z e _max between dusty and non-dusty MSSCs reflect ice particle number concentration differences. Therefore, observed Z e _max differences indicate that dust could enhance ice particle concentration in MSSCs by a factor of 2 to 6 at temperatures colder than À12 C. The enhancements are strongly dependent on the cloud top temperature, large dust particle concentration and chemical compositions. These results imply an important role of dust particles in modifying mixed-phase cloud properties globally. (2012), Quantifying the impact of dust on heterogeneous ice generation in midlevel supercooled stratiform clouds, Geophys.
doi:10.1029/2012gl052831 fatcat:mu2ltenmmjephisf65ktba5adm