This presentation uses airborne observations of aerosols, cloud microphysics and vertical motions with context provided by airborne radars onboard the National Research Council of Canada (NRC) Convair-580 aircraft to first quantify the macrophysical and microphysical properties of deep convective clouds sampled during ESCAPE. Thereafter, analysis of more than 200 warm convective cloud core segments having the intercepted length of at least 500 m and peak strength of up to 19 m.s-1 is shown. An increase in the average and interquartile range of the updraft strength with height was noted. Quasi-steady state supersaturations derived in the updraft cores were estimated using the in-situ observations and averaged nearly 0.3% in the convective cores, with some instances of higher supersaturations in the presence of low number concentrations noted. Implications of these calculations for the nucleation of ultrafine aerosols in updraft cores is discussed. As aerosol concentration is seen to vary substantially in the vicinity of Houston, analysis is also presented to show how the microphysical properties vary as a function of vertical velocity, and statistical analysis shows how cloud microphysical properties such as liquid water content, total number concentration, extinction, and effective radius vary with position in cloud, aerosol concentrations and meteorological conditions. Signatures of the classical first indirect effect are seen with enhanced cloud particle concentrations and smaller cloud effective radii in more polluted conditions seen east of Houston compared to cleaner continental conditions west of Houston and over the Gulf of Mexico.
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