Unraveling ice multiplication in winter orographic clouds via in-situ observations, remote sensing and modeling.

Recent years have shown that secondary ice production (SIP) is ubiquitous, affecting all clouds from polar to tropical regions. SIP is not described well in models and may explain biases in warm mixed-phase cloud ice content and structure. Through modeling constrained by in-situ observations and its synergy with radar we show that SIP in orographic clouds exert a profound impact on the vertical distribution of hydrometeors and precipitation, especially in seeder-feeder cloud configurations. The mesoscale model simulations coupled with a radar simulator strongly support that enhanced aggregation and SIP through ice-ice collisions contribute to observed spectral bimodalities, skewing the Doppler spectra toward the slower-falling side at temperatures within the dendritic growth layer, ranging from -20 °C to -10 °C. This unique signature provides an opportunity to infer long-term SIP occurrences from the global cloud radar data archive, particularly for this underexplored temperature regime.

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© The Author(s) 2024.

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Competing interestsThe authors declare no competing interests.