Motions of Ice Hydrometeors in the Atmosphere Numerical Studies and Implications

This book summarizes unique research findings on the hydrodynamic behavior of ice particles (ice crystals, snow, graupel and hailstones) in the atmosphere. The fall behavior of ice hydrometeors determines how and how fast a mixed-phase cloud can grow or dissipate. The book discusses how the authors used computational fluid dynamics (CFD) methods and numerical simulations to determine these behaviors, and presents these computations along with numerous detailed tables and illustrations of turbulent flow fields. It also examines the implications of the results for the general atmospheric sciences as well as for climate science (since the cloud problem is the source of the greatest uncertainty in model-based climate predictions). As such it allows readers to gain a clear and comprehensive understanding of how particles fall in clouds and offers insights into cloud physics and dynamics and their impact on the climate..

Introduction -- Ice Hydrometeors in Atmospheric Clouds.- Observed fall attitudes of ice hydrometeors.- Physics and mathematics of the theoretical problems.- Flow fields and fall attitudes of ice hydrometeors.- Ventilation effects of falling ice hydrometeors and their impacts.- Summary and outlook.

Pao K. Wang received his Ph.D. and M.S. in Atmospheric Sciences from UCLA in 1978 and 1975 and his B.S. from the National Taiwan University in 1971. He is currently the Director of the Research Center for Environmental Changes, Academia Sinica, and Professor Emeritus at the University of Wisconsin–Madison. He is a Fellow of the American Meteorological Society and of the Taiwan Meteorological Society.He is also a recipient of the Alexander von Humboldt Senior Research Award (Germany) and Samuel C. Johnson Distinguished Fellowship (US).