Document Type

Article

Publication Date

9-1-2008

Abstract

The freezing of supercooled water droplets in the atmosphere, with an emphasis on the entropic aspects of the problem, is examined. Supercooled water is a metastable state and, therefore, the associated phase transition must be irreversible. Temperature-dependent heat capacities of supercooled water and ice are used to calculate the entropy difference. That difference is then used to establish a lower bound on the amount of latent heat that can be liberated by the freezing droplets. The calculation is compared with tabulated values of the latent heat of fusion with surprising results. Based on a novel physical picture of the freezing process, the authors suggest a simple estimate for the effective latent heat that is suitable for heat budget calculations of glaciating clouds. In addition, the authors arrive at a quadratic dependence on supercooling, (ΔT)2, for the irreversible contribution to heat exchange during the freezing process. The proportionality factor is estimated as −0.3 J mol−1 K−2.

Publisher's Statement

© 2008 American Meteorological Society. Article deposited here in compliance with publisher policies. Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1175/2008JAS2503.1

Publication Title

Journal of the Atmospheric Sciences

Version

Publisher's PDF

Included in

Physics Commons

Share

COinS
 
 

To view the content in your browser, please download Adobe Reader or, alternately,
you may Download the file to your hard drive.

NOTE: The latest versions of Adobe Reader do not support viewing PDF files within Firefox on Mac OS and if you are using a modern (Intel) Mac, there is no official plugin for viewing PDF files within the browser window.