Work package 1 - Understanding convectively-generated ice-clouds
Workpackage 1 focuses on the formation, evolution and growth of ice particles in deep convective clouds and the formation of convectively-generated cirrus (anvils) and convectively-generated mid-level stratiform clouds (stratiform region of convective systems).
Work package 2 - Impact of embedded convection on warm conveyor belt outflow
Work package 2 investigates the occurrence as well as the microphysical and macrophysical properties of cirrus outflow of Warm Conveyor Belts (WCB). The use of a newly developed microphysics scheme allows us to easily differentiate between the contribution of multiple ice formation processes such as homogeneous and heterogeneous nucleation, freezing of cloud droplets and ice multiplication.
Work package 3&4 - Convective transport and its impact on the moisture budget at ice cloud level
Work packages 3 and 4 focus on the convective outflow and its representation in NWP (numerical weather prediction) and GCM (global circulation) models. The goal is to achieve a better understanding and ultimately better representation of processes which influence the development of convection and its outflow when parameterized.
Work package 5 - Impact of convection on the anvil cirrus and upper tropospheric total water field
Work packages 5 and 3 study the impact of convection on the water budget and variability in the upper troposphere, anvil top temperatures, ice supersaturation and the macro-scale distribution (e.g. cover and ice water) of ice clouds and their temporal evolution in the ICON-GCM (global circulation model).
Work package 6 - Convective process rates and lower level temperatures
To provide more process-oriented validation of convective systems in the model system, we apply a combination of on-line feature identification and a trajectory tool. In this approach, “massless” particles are started in regions identified to be favoured to convection initiation. These particles are transported in the model system in a Lagrangian framework, resulting in on-line trajectories.
Work package 7 - Using satellites to observe and validate the macro- and microphysics of convective ice clouds
Work package 8 - Data from the Lindenberg Observatory
In workpackage 8 four goals are specified:
- the statistical evaluation of anvil properties
- the evaluation of the ice-microphysical scheme
- a validation of the satellite retrieval products, and
- the determination of the retrieval accuracy of the Ice Water Content (IWC) Cloudnet product.
Work package 9 - Active satellite observations of ice clouds for model evaluation