Can Quasi‐Periodic Gravity Waves Influence the Shape of Ice Crystals in Cirrus Clouds?

Abstract

The present work, for the first time, unravels the impact of mesoscale gravity waves on the microphysical changes in cirrus clouds over the subtropical Indian region using Raman lidar, satellite, model simulations, and reanalysis data sets. The cirrus clouds are formed from the convective outflow of large‐scale convergence zone extending from south‐west to north‐east Indian region. These clouds are modulated by the upward propagating gravity waves with time periods ~40 and ~20 min over the Raman lidar observational site. The wave‐induced enhancement of moisture leads to supersaturation thereby controlling the ice crystals' size and shape through depositional freezing. The ice crystals size increases, and they transform to irregular shapes in the presence of wave activity. Therefore, the present work is novel and will have implications toward the uncertainties associated with cirrus clouds in both regional and global climate models.

A mountain ridge model for quantifying oblique mountain wave propagation and distribution

“…As discussed by Strube et al (2020), below 20 km altitude zonal wavenumbers of 10 and higher need to be taken into account to describe the background. These cannot be self-consistently estimated from a single-track low-Earth-orbit satellite (Salby and Callaghan, 1997). In order to isolate the small-scale GW contributions, ERA5 background data with an altitude-dependent zonal wavenumber cutoff have been subtracted from the retrieved HIRDLS temperature measurements.…”

Quasi‐periodic traveling waves for a class of damped beams on rectangular tori

“…In their study, 20 Calleja et al obtained response solutions (i.e., quasi-periodic solutions with the same frequency as the forcing) of several models of nonlinear wave equations with very strong damping, such as 1 𝜖 u t for 𝜖 small enough. Recently, Saha et al 21 treated the influence of quasi-periodic gravity waves in the shape of crystals in clouds. Berti and Montalto 22 proved the existence of small amplitude quasi-periodic standing wave solutions of an ocean with infinite depth under the action of gravity and surface tension.…”

Quasi-periodic travelling waves for a class of damped beams on rectangular tori

“…In [6], Calleja et al obtained response solutions (i.e., quasi-periodic solutions with the same frequency as the forcing) of several models of nonlinear wave equations with very strong damping, such as 1 ǫ u t for ǫ small enough. Recently, Saha et al [24] treated the influence of quasi-periodic gravity waves in the shape of crystals in clouds. Berti-Montalto [2] proved the existence of small amplitude quasi-periodic standing wave solutions of an ocean with infinite depth under the action of gravity and surface tension.…”