Document Type

Article

Publication Date

11-6-2025

Department

Department of Physics

Abstract

A large convection cloud chamber has been proposed for exploring aerosol–cloud–drizzle interactions under well‐controlled turbulent conditions. Recent theoretical and numerical studies suggest that ac on vection cloud chamber with two heated and two cooled sidewalls can significantly enhance the liquid water content and thus benefit drizzle initiation. However, a chamber with such a sidewall configuration develops stable stratification and extremely weak turbulence therein. In this study, we conduct large‐eddy simulations of a tall convection chamber with five different sidewall configurations consisting of alternating warm and cold patches. For each configuration, the total surface area of warm patches equals that of cold patches, resulting in the same expected cloud‐free supersaturation based on a flux budget model. Results show that changing the sidewall configuration, while keeping all other factors constant, can substantially enhance turbulent mixing and improve the uniformity of thermodynamic and cloud microphysical properties in the bulk region of the chamber. In addition, turbulence strength is positively correlated with liquid water content and negatively correlated with cloud droplet number concentration, consistent with theoretical predictions. Our results highlight the advantage of building a large cloud chamber using modular patches with individually controllable temperature and humidity to achieve well‐mixed conditions.

Publisher's Statement

© 2025 The Author(s). Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems published by Wiley Periodicals LLC on behalf of American Geophysical Union. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1029/2025MS005316

Publication Title

Journal of Advances in Modeling Earth Systems

Version

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