Turbulence is ineffective in causing raindrop growth in polluted clouds
Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics
2026-01-05 v1 Fluid Dynamics
Abstract
Aerosol-cloud interactions represent the largest uncertainty in climate-change assessment, and while cloud turbulence is considered crucial for droplet growth, its precise role remains unclear. Our laboratory-controlled studies show that turbulence does not always enhance collision and coalescence; instead, its influence emerges only when droplets have a sufficiently broad size distribution. The dissipative-scale droplet behaviour underscores the importance of improved parameterisations to accurately model cloud microphysics.
Keywords
Cite
@article{arxiv.2601.00637,
title = {Turbulence is ineffective in causing raindrop growth in polluted clouds},
author = {K. Shri Vignesh and Ambedkar Sanket Sukdeo and P. V. Sruthibhai and Aishwarya Singh and Srikrishna Sahu and Swetaprovo Chaudhari and Amit K. Patra and T. Narayana Rao and Rama Govindarajan and Sachin S. Gunthe and R. I. Sujith},
journal= {arXiv preprint arXiv:2601.00637},
year = {2026}
}
Comments
19 pages, 2 figures corresponding to the main text and 6 figures corresponding to the extended data