Hallett‐Mossop Rime Splintering Dims Cumulus Clouds Over the Southern Ocean: New Insight From Nudged Global Storm‐Resolving Simulations

Abstract

Abstract In clouds containing both liquid and ice with temperatures between −3°C and −8°C, liquid droplets collide with large ice crystals, freeze, and shatter, producing a plethora of small ice splinters. This process, known as Hallett‐Mossop rime splintering, and other forms of secondary ice production, can cause clouds to reflect less sunlight and to have shorter lifetimes. We show its impact on Southern Ocean shallow cumuli using a novel suite of five global storm‐resolving simulations, which partition the Earth's atmosphere into 2–4 km wide columns. We evaluate simulated clouds and radiation over the Southern Ocean with aircraft observations from the Southern Ocean Clouds, Radiation, Aerosol Transport Experimental Study (SOCRATES), and satellite observations from Clouds and the Earth's Radiant Energy System (CERES) and Himawari. Simulations with large concentrations of ice crystals in boundary layer clouds, which agree better with SOCRATES observations, have reduced mixed‐phase cumulus cloud cover and weaker shortwave cloud radiative effects (CREs) that are less biased compared with CERES. Using a pair of simulations differing only in their treatment of Hallett‐Mossop rime splintering, we show that including this process increases ice crystal concentrations in cumulus clouds and weakens shortwave CREs over the Southern Ocean by 10 W m−2. We also demonstrate the key role that global storm‐resolving models can play in detangling the effects of clouds on Earth's climate across scales, making it possible to trace the impact of changes in individual cumulus cloud anvils (10 km2) on the radiative budget of the massive Southern Ocean basin (107 km2).

Keywords

• Hallett‐Mossop rime splintering
• global cloud‐resolving simulations
• open cell cumuli
• secondary ice production
• boundary layer
• Southern Ocean