Acceleration of raindrop formation due to the tangling-clustering instability in a turbulent stratified atmosphere.

Condensation of water vapor on active cloud condensation nuclei produces micron-size water droplets. To form rain, they must grow rapidly into at least 50- to 100-µm droplets. Observations show that this process takes only 15-20 min. The unexplained physical mechanism of such fast growth is crucial for understanding and modeling of rain and known as "condensation-coalescence bottleneck in rain formation." We show that the recently discovered phenomenon of the tangling clustering instability of small droplets in temperature-stratified turbulence [Phys. Fluids 25, 085104 (2013)] results in the formation of droplet clusters with drastically increased droplet number densities. The mechanism of the tangling clustering instability is much more effective than the previously considered by us the inertial clustering instability caused by the centrifugal effect of turbulent vortices. This is the reason of strong enhancement of the collision-coalescence rate inside the clusters. The mean-field theory of the droplet growth developed in this study can be useful for explanation of the observed fast growth of cloud droplets in warm clouds from the initial 1-µm-size droplets to 40- to 50-µm-size droplets within 15-20 min.

Isothermal absorption of soluble gases by atmospheric nanoaerosols.

We investigate mass transfer during the isothermal absorption of atmospheric trace soluble gases by a single droplet whose size is comparable to the molecular mean free path in air at normal conditions. It is assumed that the trace reactant diffuses to the droplet surface and then reacts with the substances inside the droplet according to the first-order rate law. Our analysis applies a flux-matching theory of transport processes in gases and assumes constant thermophysical properties of the gases and liquids. We derive an integral equation of Volterra type for the transient molecular flux density to a liquid droplet and solve it numerically. Numerical calculations are performed for absorption of sulfur dioxide (SO(2)), dinitrogen trioxide (N(2)O(3)), and chlorine (Cl(2)) by liquid nanoaerosols accompanied by chemical dissociation reaction. It is shown that during gas absorption by nanoaerosols, the kinetic effects play a significant role, and neglecting kinetic effects leads to a significant overestimation of the soluble gas flux into a droplet during the entire period of gas absorption.