Interactions between gravity waves and cirrus clouds: asymptotic modeling of wave induced ice nucleation

Abstract

We present an asymptotic approach for the systematic investigation of the effect of gravity waves (GW) on ice clouds formed through homogeneous nucleation. In particular, we consider high- and mid-frequency GW in the tropopause region driving the formation of ice clouds, modeled with a double-moment bulk ice microphysics scheme. The asymptotic approach allows for identifying reduced equations for self-consistent description of the ice dynamics forced by GW including the effects of diffusional growth and nucleation of ice crystals. Further, corresponding analytical solutions for a monochromatic GW are derived under a single-parcel approximation. It is demonstrated that the asymptotic solutions capture the dynamics of the full ice model and provide a simple expression for the nucleated number of ice crystals. The present approach is extended to allow for superposition of GW, as well as, for variable mean mass in the ice crystal distribution. Implications of the results for an improved representation of GW variability in cirrus parameterizations are discussed.