Small-Scale Turbulent Mixing in Clouds: Numerical and Experimental Results
(Dr. Szyman Malinowski, Warsaw University).
Conclusions: (i) Mixing of cloud with clear air is a 2-phase reacting flow substantially influenced by submerged heavy particles in cloud droplets. (ii) In the appropriate conditions (mixing with sub-saturated air) droplet evaporation substantially influences the smallest scales of turbulence. (iii) For moderate and small values of initial Turbulent Kinetic Energy (TKE) this influence is substantial or even dominating. (iv) Droplet sedimentation is important as a transport mechanism of liquid water from cloudy to clear air filaments for low levels of initial TKE. (v) This mechanism depends strongly on droplet spectral distribution. (vi) Buoyancy production in cloud-clear air mixing causes even the smallest scales of turbulence to be highly anisotropic.