Skip to main content
SpringerLink
Log in

Internal mechanism of metastable liquid water crystallization and its effects on intracloud processes

  • Published:
Izvestiya, Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics Aims and scope Submit manuscript

Abstract

Specific features of an internal freezing (crystallization) mechanism for both ordinary supercooled water and amorphous water (A-water) are considered. Amorphous water plays the role of an intermediate phase in condensation ice formation and is capable of metastable existence in the form of cloud drops. It is demonstrated that, after passing the crystallization front, the ice phase takes the liquid-phase volume and the excessive water mass is detached from the front in the form of free molecules, which escape through the liquid into the gaseous medium. The released energy of the phase transition is removed with these molecules, so that the formed ice retains the initial temperature of the liquid. A high-rate vapor outflow from the freezing drop generates (around the drop) a zone of microscale turbulence, which accelerates the mass exchange between cloud particle and vapor. Since the freezing frequency of drops in a cloud increases with their size, the effects of their freezing develop initially in time. At the same time, these effects initiate such processes that end in a complete evaporation of supercooled water drops and in a sharp enlargement of A-water and ice particles, i.e., in cloud transition to such a phase-mixed state where the liquid disperse phase consists of A-water drops. A reduction in the duration of the initial (fine-dispersed) stage of the evolution of clouds with their temperature lowering can be explained only by the development of microscale disturbances as a result of the freezing of drops.

This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.

Access this article

Log in via an institution

Price excludes VAT (USA)
Tax calculation will be finalised during checkout.

Instant access to the full article PDF.

Institutional subscriptions

Similar content being viewed by others

References

  1. A. N. Nevzorov, Experimental Basis for a Physical Model of Ice-Containing Clouds, Available from VNI-IGM MTsD, No. 1037-gm90 (Obninsk, 1990).

  2. A. N. Nevzorov, “Studies on the Physics of the Liquid Phase in Ice-Containing Clouds,” Meteorol. Gidrol., No. 1, 55–68 (1993).

  3. A. N. Nevzorov, “Permanence, Properties and Nature of Liquid Phase in Ice-Containing Clouds,” in Proceedings of 11th International Conference on Clouds and Precipitation (Montreal, 1992), pp. 270–273.

  4. A. N. Nevzorov, “Cloud Phase Composition and Phase Evolution As Deduced from Experimental Evidence and Physicochemical Concepts,” in Proceedings of 13th International Conference on Clouds and Precipitation (Reno, Nevada, 2000), pp. 728–731.

  5. Water and Water Solutions at Temperatures below 0°C, Ed. by F. Franks (Naukova dumka, Kiev, 1985) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  6. V. P. Skripov and V. P. Koverda, Spontaneous Crystallization of Supercooled Liquids (Nauka, Moscow, 1984) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  7. G. N. Zatsepina, Physical Properties and Structure of Water (Mosk. Gos. Univ., Moscow, 1987) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  8. A. S. Kabanov, Macroscopic Theory of Crystallization of Supercooled Liquids and Its Meteorological Application (Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1989) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  9. H. R. Pruppacher and J. D. Klett, Microphysics of Clouds and Precipitation (Reidel, Dordrecht, 1978).

    Google Scholar 

  10. Clouds and a Cloudy Atmosphere: Handbook, Ed. by I. P. Mazin and A. Kh. Khrgian (Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1989) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  11. A. M. Borovikov, I. I. Gaivoronskii, E. G. Zak, et al., Cloud Physics, Ed. by A. Kh. Khrgian (Gidrometeoizdat, Leningrad, 1961) [in Russian].

    Google Scholar 

  12. C. A. Angell, “Amorphous Water,” Ann. Rev. Phys. Chem. 55, 559–583 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  13. A. H. Delsemme and A. Wenger, “Superdense Water Ice,” Science 167, 44–45 (1970).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  14. A. N. Nevzorov and V. F. Shugaev, “Observations of the Early Stage of Ice-Phase Evolution in Supercooled Clouds,” Meteorol. Gidrol., No. 1, 84–92 (1992).

  15. A. N. Nevzorov and V. F. Shugaev, “Experimental Studies of the Phase-Disperse Structure of Stratiform Clouds at Negative Temperatures,” Meteorol. Gidrol., No. 8, 52–65 (1992).

  16. N. H. Fletcher, The Physics of Rainclouds (Cambridge Univ. Press, Cambridge, 1962).

    Google Scholar 

  17. A. V. Korolev, M. P. Bailey, J. Hallett, and G. A. Isaac, “Laboratory and in situ Observation of Deposition Growth of Frozen Drops,” J. Appl. Meteorol. 43, 612–622 (2004).

    Article  Google Scholar 

  18. G. Vali, R. D. Kelly, and F. Serrano, “A Test of Ice Crystal Production by Aircraft,” in Proceedings of 10th International Conference on Cloud Physics (Bad Homburg, 1988), pp. 52–54.

Download references

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Central Aerological Observatory, Pervomaiskaya ul. 3, Dolgoprudnyi, Moscow oblast, 141700, Russia

    A. N. Nevzorov

Authors
  1. A. N. Nevzorov
    View author publications

    You can also search for this author in PubMed Google Scholar

Additional information

Original Russian Text © A.N. Nevzorov, 2006, published in Izvestiya AN. Fizika Atmosfery i Okeana, 2006, Vol. 42, No. 6, pp. 830–838.

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

Nevzorov, A.N. Internal mechanism of metastable liquid water crystallization and its effects on intracloud processes. Izv. Atmos. Ocean. Phys. 42, 765–772 (2006). https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433806060107

Download citation

  • Received:

  • Accepted:

  • Issue Date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1134/S0001433806060107

Keywords

Search

Navigation