Turbulent Vertical Mixing and Aerosol Impacts on Polar Mixed-phase Clouds

Mixed-phase clouds are poorly represented in climate models because their complex cloud processes are not well understood. A comprehensive database is constructed from retrieved mixed-phase cloud microphysical and dynamical properties using ARM ground-based remote sensing measurements from the McMurdo ARM West Antarctic Radiation Experiment (AWARE) and North Slope of Alaska (NSA) sites. The database includes ice and liquid components of water content, average particle size and concentration, vertical air velocity and turbulence. With the database, we compare mixed-phase cloud macro- and microphysical properties over NSA sites and from AWARE. The effects of turbulent vertical mixing are analyzed on polar boundary layer mixed-phase cloud ice particle growth, secondary ice generation, supercooled liquid water fraction, and cloud lifecycle. In addition, lidar backscattering and polarization measurements and trajectory analyses will be used to study aerosol impacts on polar mid-level stratiform mixed-phase cloud microphysical properties where they act as cloud condensation nuclei and ice nuclei.