Highlights will be written for high-level accomplishments and published journal articles of ASR research. Each ASR principal investigator (PI) is expected to submit at least one highlight per fiscal year.
Research Highlights
Recent Highlights
Light absorption by black carbon in wildfire-driven storms
7 October 2024
Fast, Jerome D
Supported by:
Research area: Aerosol Processes
Pyrocumulonimbus (pyroCb) clouds form from wildfire-driven convection. PyroCb clouds contain large amounts of black carbon (BC) mixed with water and organics. BC particles have a large effect on our climate because they can absorb sunlight, but BC absorption depends on how it is mixed with other materials. Previously, the extent [...]
Modeling the glaciation of mixed-phase clouds in the laboratory
2 October 2024
Ovchinnikov, Mikhail; Wang, Aaron
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
Clouds are one of the most uncertain components in numerical weather prediction and climate models. Mixed-phase clouds (those containing both supercooled liquid water and ice) can be especially challenging to represent. Theory predicts that when ice and liquid coexist in a cloud, ice crystals will grow while liquid droplets evaporate. [...]
Studying isolated deep convective clouds over the Amazon rainforest
2 October 2024
Gupta, Siddhant; Wang, Die
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud Processes
Deep convective clouds play a crucial role in precipitation, atmospheric circulation, and Earth’s energy budget. It is challenging to quantify the vertical motion of air within tall storm clouds formed by convection. These storm clouds are called deep convective clouds (DCCs). Vertical air motion affects critical cloud properties like size [...]
On CCN effects upon convective cold pool timing and features
22 September 2024
Lasher-Trapp, Sonia
Supported by:
Research area: Cloud-Aerosol-Precipitation Interactions
Field observations, and numerical modeling based on those observations, suggest that environments with more CCN can delay and weaken the first precipitation, and thus the first cold pools, produced by ordinary thunderstorms. Supercell thunderstorms appear to be less susceptible to these CCN effects.
Arctic sea ice energy balance sensitive to snow thermal conductivity
21 September 2024
Shupe, Matthew
Supported by:
Research area: Surface Properties
Variability in snow thermal conductivity can modulate the balance of energy exchange at the surface of arctic sea ice. Direct measurements have been used to derive spatiotemporally varying snow thermal conductivity that is consistent with measurements of surface radiative and turbulent heat fluxes at the Multidisciplinary drifting Observatory for the [...]