EGU25-13932, updated on 15 Mar 2025
https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13932
EGU General Assembly 2025
© Author(s) 2025. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Oral | Tuesday, 29 Apr, 12:15–12:25 (CEST)
 
Room F2
A Closer Look into Shallow Cumulus Clouds: Investigating Cloud Microphysics and Droplet Clustering Using the Max Planck Cloudkite+
Birte Thiede1, Michael L. Larsen1,2,3, Oliver Schlenczek1, Freja Nordsiek1, Eberhard Bodenschatz1,4,5, and Gholamhossein Bagheri
Birte Thiede et al.
  • 1Max-Planck-Institute for Dynamics and Self-Organization, LFPB, Germany
  • 2Department of Physics and Astronomy, College of Charleston, Charleston, SC, 29424, USA
  • 3Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, MI, 49931, USA
  • 4Institute for Dynamics of Complex Systems, University of Göttingen, 37077 Göttingen, Germany
  • 5Physics Department, Cornell University, Ithaca, NY, 14853, USA

We present the findings from our in-situ holographic measurements conducted in shallow cumulus clouds, using the tethered aerostat Max Planck CloudKite (MPCK) during the EUREC4A campaign. The MPCK+ instrument is equipped with a holographic system sampling cloud droplets  8µm diameter or larger in a 10cm^3 three-dimensional volume every 12cm. This unprecedentedly small inter-sample spacing for holographic measurements is achieved by combining two variables: the high sampling frequency of our MPCK+ holographic setup, set at 75 Hz, and the low true airspeed of the aerostat.

The microphysical characteristics of clouds, such as droplet concentration, size distribution and liquid water content can be calculated with sub-meter spatial resolution. This allows us to obtain a detailed horizontal snapshot of a cloud's microphysics. The three-dimensional nature of holographic droplet data also allows a direct calculation of the radial distribution function (RDF), and the high measurement cadence of the MPCK+ data invites a spatially localized investigation of cloud droplet clustering.

We present an overview of our holographic data showcasing the structure of shallow cumulus clouds as well as an analysis of cloud droplet clustering in a short horizontal cloud snapshot.

How to cite: Thiede, B., Larsen, M. L., Schlenczek, O., Nordsiek, F., Bodenschatz, E., and Bagheri, G.: A Closer Look into Shallow Cumulus Clouds: Investigating Cloud Microphysics and Droplet Clustering Using the Max Planck Cloudkite+, EGU General Assembly 2025, Vienna, Austria, 27 Apr–2 May 2025, EGU25-13932, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-egu25-13932, 2025.

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