Frozen-droplets aggregation at temperature below -40°C

Abstract

The onset of the aggregation process of frozen droplets was investigated in laboratory settings. The experiments were conducted in a cloud chamber controlled at temperatures cooler than −40°C, where pure water droplets freeze spontaneously without the need for ice nucleating particles. We present laboratory evidence supporting that the aggregation process can occur for frozen droplet sizes around 10 μm in diameter and at concentrations observed in the cloud chamber of 70 ± 20 cm−3, which can be found in some regions of anvil cirrus. The characteristics and morphology of the aggregates were examined in detail. Additional experiments performed with electrically charged droplets show that the aggregation processes can be significantly accelerated, suggesting that the mechanism of collision and adhesion could be related to electrical forces generated by different charge distributions or dipole interactions between the interacting ice surfaces. The current work aims at advancing our fundamental understanding of the aggregation process of frozen droplets, which is necessary for understanding the cloud microphysical processes.