Related papers: Quantifying the lucky droplet model for rainfall
Rainfall from ice-free cumulus clouds requires collisions of large numbers of microscopic droplets to create every raindrop. The onset of rain showers can be surprisingly rapid, much faster than the mean time required for a single…
To trigger precipitation, water droplets in warm clouds need to attain a sufficient size. Theoretical estimates based on condensation and gravitational collisions alone fail to explain the observed timescales for the onset of precipitation…
We present a mean-field model that describes droplet growth due to condensation and collisions and droplet loss due to fallout. The model allows for an effective numerical simulation. We study how the rain initiation time depends on…
Cloud droplets grow via vapor condensation and collisional aggregation. Upon reaching approximately $\approx 100~{\rm \mu m}$, their inertia allows them to capture smaller droplets during descent, initiating rain. Here, we show that…
This paper discusses the evolution of the droplet size distribution for a liquid-in-gas aerosol contained in a Rayleigh-B\'enard cell. It introduces a non-collisional model for broadening the droplet size distribution, termed 'convective…
Condensation of water vapor on active cloud condensation nuclei produces micron-size water droplets. To form rain, they must grow rapidly into at least 50-100 $\mu$m droplets. Observations show that this process takes only 15-20 minutes.…
It was previously shown that the superdroplet algorithm for modeling the collision-coalescence process can faithfully represent mean droplet growth in turbulent clouds. But an open question is how accurately the superdroplet algorithm…
If the temperature of a cell containing two partially miscible liquids is changed very slowly, so that the miscibility is decreased, microscopic droplets nucleate, grow and migrate to the interface due to their buoyancy. The system may show…
Water droplets coalesce into larger ones in atmospheric clouds to form rain. But droplets on collision courses do not always coalesce due to the cushioning effects of the air between them. The extent to which these so-called hydrodynamic…
Secondary droplets produced by interactions between falling fluid drops and a liquid pool play a significant role in engineering applications and geophysical processes in nature. This study uses direct numerical simulations to investigate…
Rain drops form in clouds by collision of submillimetric droplets falling under gravity: larger drops fall faster than smaller ones and collect them on their path. The puzzling stability of fogs and non-precipitating warm clouds with…
The distribution of liquid water in ice-free clouds determines their radiative properties, a significant source of uncertainty in weather and climate models. Evaporation and turbulent mixing cause a cloud to display large variations in…
We show quantitatively how the collision rate of droplets of visible moisture in turbulent air increases very abruptly as the intensity of the turbulence passes a threshold, due to the formation of fold caustics in their velocity field. The…
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…
Assuming perfect collision efficiency, we demonstrate that turbulence can initiate and sustain the rapid growth of very small water droplets in air even when these droplets are too small to cluster, and even without having to take gravity…
The evolution of micron-sized droplets in clouds is studied with focus on the 'size-gap' regime of 15-40 $\mu m$ radius, where condensation and differential sedimentation are least effective in promoting growth. This bottleneck leads to…
This article discusses a potential impact of turbulent velocity fluctuations of the air on a drizzle formation in Cumulus clouds. Two different representations of turbulent velocity fluctuations for a microphysics formulated in a Lagrangian…
We analyse the probability densities of daily rainfall amounts at a variety of locations on the Earth. The observed distributions of the amount of rainfall fit well to a q-exponential distribution with exponent q close to q=1.3. We discuss…
Collisions between particles suspended in a fluid play an important role in many physical processes. As an example, collisions of microscopic water droplets in clouds are a necessary step in the production of macroscopic raindrops.…
Two models for raindrop growth in clouds are developed and compared. A continuous accretion model is solved numerically for drop growth from 20-50 microns, using a polynomial approximation to the collection kernel, and is shown to…