Impacts of Entrainment and Mixing on Ice Growth in Mixed-Phase Clouds

Shallow mixed-phase clouds, in which ice and liquid particles co-exist, occur frequently in the middle and high latitudes of Earth. Yet despite their frequency and importance for local precipitation and radiative balance, our understanding of these clouds is limited. Especially the interaction of small-scale turbulence and mixed-phase microphysics has received little attention so far. To address this knowledge gap, we conducted large-eddy simulations with a highly detailed Lagrangian cloud microphysics parameterization. We simulate a shallow mixed-phase cloud observed during the Indirect and Semi-Direct Aerosol Campaign (ISDAC). We focus on the processes occurring in regions of mixing and entrainment near the cloud edges, with particular focus on the Wegener-Bergeron-Findeisen (WBF) process. We also investigate the effect on cloud properties, lifetime, and radiative balance from using a kinetically-limited ice crystal growth parameterization as opposed to a traditional capacitance-based growth parameterization.