Collision Fluctuations of Lucky Droplets with Superdroplets Show others and affiliations
2022 (English) In: Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences, ISSN 0022-4928, E-ISSN 1520-0469, Vol. 79, no 7, p. 1821-1835Article in journal (Refereed) Published
Abstract [en]
It was previously shown that the superdroplet algorithm for modeling the collision-coalescence process can faithfully represent mean droplet growth in turbulent clouds. An open question is how accurately the superdroplet algorithm accounts for fluctuations in the collisional aggregation process. Such fluctuations are particularly important in dilute suspensions. Even in the absence of turbulence, Poisson fluctuations of collision times in dilute suspensions may result in substantial variations in the growth process, resulting in a broad distribution of growth times to reach a certain droplet size. We quantify the accuracy of the superdroplet algorithm in describing the fluctuating growth history of a larger droplet that settles under the effect of gravity in a quiescent fluid and collides with a dilute suspension of smaller droplets that were initially randomly distributed in space ("lucky droplet model"). We assess the effect of fluctuations upon the growth history of the lucky droplet and compute the distribution of cumulative collision times. The latter is shown to be sensitive enough to detect the subtle increase of fluctuations associated with collisions between multiple lucky droplets. The superdroplet algorithm incorporates fluctuations in two distinct ways: through the random spatial distribution of superdroplets and through the Monte Carlo collision algorithm involved. Using specifically designed numerical experiments, we show that both on their own give an accurate representation of fluctuations. We conclude that the superdroplet algorithm can faithfully represent fluctuations in the coagulation of droplets driven by gravity.
Place, publisher, year, edition, pages American Meteorological Society , 2022. Vol. 79, no 7, p. 1821-1835
Keywords [en]
Atmosphere, Aerosols, Cloud droplets
National Category
Physical Sciences
Identifiers URN: urn:nbn:se:kth:diva-322337 DOI: 10.1175/JAS-D-20-0371.1 ISI: 000887942300004 Scopus ID: 2-s2.0-85133243906 OAI: oai:DiVA.org:kth-322337 DiVA, id: diva2:1720259
Note QC 20221219
2022-12-192022-12-192022-12-19 Bibliographically approved