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S. Twomey

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S. Twomey

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S. Twomey

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S. Twomey

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S. Twomey

Abstract

Numerical integrations were made of the statistical equations describing the evolution of droplet distributions by coalescence. The results confirmed that increasing the droplet concentration, for the same liquid water content, greatly adds to the difficulty attending rain formation by coalescence. The spread of the initial distribution was not, on the other hand, an important parameter.

The computed times for rain formation were less than a half-hour when the cloud contained 50 droplets cm−3 and 1 gm m−3 liquid water. When compared with observations these times are a little too long, but rain which forms more quickly can be explained by more rapid growth in regions of higher liquid water content.

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S. Twomey

Abstract

Several years ago Telford pointed out that the simplest coalescence model, in which a small group of droplets grew with unit collection efficiency by collecting droplets of half their volume, did not remain bimodal but that the statistical fluctuations in the discrete coalescence events caused many sizes to be evolved from the original two. A few droplets per million grew much more rapidly than the average; Telford was thereby able to shorten considerably the time necessary for rain formation in warm clouds.

Results have been obtained by numerical solution of the integro-differential equation which describes the time variation of a droplet distribution. Hocking's collection efficiencies were used. The computations show that Telford's mechanism is equally, if not more, effective when the initial distribution is continuous.

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S. Twomey

Abstract

The size of cloud nuclei acting at 0.75% supersaturation was estimated by using varying flow rates through Nuclepore filters to discriminate between different sizes. The nuclei, sampled in clean continental and maritime air at Robertson, N.S.W., were found to be small, not much greater than the theoretical minimum radius of ∼1−6 cm permitted by nucleation theory.

This result agrees quite well with previous estimates of cloud-nucleus size from experiments carried out at Chesapeake Bay, Md. It is concluded that the atmospheric residence time of cloud nuclei cannot be more than a few days and that they must be composed entirely or partly of a water-soluble material since an insoluble particle of such a small size could not nucleate condensation at supersaturations of the order of 1% or less.

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S. Twomey

Abstract

When non-absorbing scatterers (e.g., cloud drops) are added in an absorbing layer (e.g., a dust layer), the optical paths of the radiation will be greatly changed if the scattering component is optically thick. The absorption will thus be altered. Results are given of numerical computations to determine the effect of non-absorbing cloud drops on the absorption of radiation by a dust layer. Absorption is found to be decreased for low angles of incidence and increased for higher angles of incidence.

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S. Twomey

Abstract

Natural cloud nuclei in both maritime and continental air masses in southeastern Australia (Robertson, N.S.W.) show a high volatility when heated. Few natural nuclei withstand the high temperatures which can be applied to sodium chloride and other sodium salts. Most nuclei are therefore something other than sodium chloride or sea salt—probably ammonium sulfate. The concentration of non-volatile nuclei which could be sea salt rarely exceeded 10 cm−3.

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S. Twomey

Abstract

Atmospheric transmission functions, being negative-exponential in character, are strongly interdependent and thereby limit the information content of indirect sensing even if a large number of measurements is made.

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