Measuring High-Resolution Aerosol, Cloud, and Drizzle Properties in a Large-Scale Convection-Cloud Chamber

As our understanding of fine-scale atmospheric processes increases through field observation, questions are brought to the fore that can only be understood in the controlled setting of the laboratory where systematic investigations can be conducted. In parallel, simulations suggest that fine-scale processes are critical towards elucidating atmospheric dynamical and radiative processes that drive aerosol and cloud lifecycles and, thus, their role in weather and climate states. To this end, the Aerosol-Cloud-Drizzle-Convection Chamber (ACDC2) consortium was established to develop design criteria for a next-generation, large-scale convective cloud chamber and identify the requisite measurement needs to address fine-scale aerosol, cloud droplet, and drizzle processes within turbulent clouds.

This presentation will describe the research efforts within ACDC2 dedicated to the design of measurement systems for the characterization of aerosol, cloud, and drizzle within the chamber. Within this exploratory portfolio we have four research foci: (i) remote and in-situ measurement of gases and aerosol; (ii) remote detection of cloud droplet size distributions; (iii) in-situ detection of droplet collisions; and (iv) development of ultra-high-resolution remote sensing of aerosol-cloud-drizzle interactions. Specific lines of inquiry include proof-of-principle experiments on the non-contact detection of aerosol activation using fluorescent tags, exploration of the potential of broadband linear polarization scattering detection towards retrieving maps of cloud droplet size distributions, deriving droplet collision rates and associated collision dynamics from reconstructed 3-D droplet trajectories, and development and evaluation of THz radar and ultra-high-resolution lidar for, respectively, the remote detection of collision-coalescence and measurement of cloud fine structure/microphysical properties.