Seminar

Abstract

The growth of crystals from vapor is a vital component of any cloud model. Simplified methods have been used in the past that approximate growth with spherical forms, or apply relations between mass and some measure of crystal size. Typically, the capacitance model is used as a proxy for crystal growth and few models include the influences of surface kinetic resistance at low ice supersaturations. I will discuss recent work in our group that attempts to improve methods for evolving crystal habits using the capacitance model, and methods to unify the vapor growth treatment so that the model provides an accurate estimate of vapor growth under surface kinetic limitations. I will also discuss the implications of such models for simulated cold cloud systems.