COMPLETE ITN - ETN NETWORK

In this work we designed and developed a cluster of light expendable radiosondes that can float passively inside warm clouds to study their micro-physical processes. This involves the tracking of both saturated and unsaturated turbulent air parcels. The aim of this new kind of observation system is to obtain Lagrangian statistics of the intense turbulence inside warm clouds and of the lower intensity turbulence that is typical of the air surrounding such clouds. Each radiosonde in a cluster includes an electronic board, which is mounted onto a small, biodegradable balloon filled with a mixture of helium and air. The cluster is able to float inside clouds for a few hours and to measure air temperature, pressure, humidity and the associated position, velocity, acceleration and magnetic field readings of each radiosonde along their trajectory.

18th European Turbulence Conference, September 4-6, 2023, Valencia, Spain

We presented a newly developed methodology to track Lagrangian fluctuations of physical and chemical quantities in the atmosphere. The measurements are carried out by using a freely floating cluster of mini, innovative radiosondes. The primary aim of this method is to obtain Lagrangian statistics of the turbulence fluctuations inside warm clouds, their boundaries and the surrounding sub-saturated environmental air. This is important information, difficult to find at the state of the art and very useful for modeling cloud formations which are still a primary source of uncertainty in the numerical simulation of climatic and meteorological information.

We expand on the original studies on atmospheric diffusion shown on a distance neighbour graph, Q, by Lewis F. Richardson (1926), a quantity that effectively defines a distribution of particles over a separation distance, ℓ. Because of its definition we expect Q to evolve according to an equation of type ∂Q/∂t = ∂/∂l (F(l)∂Q/∂l). Particular emphasis was put on the search for a correct form of the diffusion function F. Richardson originally proposed an F ∼ l^(4/3) law. His studies have then been revisited by many, among which Obukhov, leading to the so-called Richardson-Obukhov l^2 ∼ t^3 theory, which holds in the homogeneous, isotropic turbulence regime. Our analysis is carried out on direct numerical simulations (DNS) of a time-decaying turbulent shear-free layer which represents a small portion of a top warm cloud boundary, a multiphase simulation where air, water vapor and water drops have been included.

The radiosonde cluster network was presented in the context of Metrology for Industry 4.0 & IoT 2023 conference on June 6-8 at Brescia, Italy.

The aim of the present work is to design and develop a remote radiosonde cluster network and receiver station based on LoRa radio communication protocol. The designed remote sensing unit, radiosonde, should be light (less then 20 gr) and expendable as much as possible. The radiosonde tracks variations of physical and chemical quantities in the surrounding environmental ambient. Primary target of this this new kind of radiosonde is to obtain Lagrangian statistics of turbulence fluctuations inside warm clouds, clear-air and cloud-clear-air mixing regions. However, the application of the sensor network is not limited and can be extended to other contexts, such as environmental monitoring over urban and industrial areas. The radiosonde is made of the radioprobe attached to a biodegradable balloon filled with a mixture of helium and air. The system is able to float inside and around clouds for a time span of the order of a few hours and measure fluctuations of air temperature, pressure, humidity position, velocity and acceleration along its own trajectory. In this manner, the system can provide a multipoint endoscopic view of the flow by following the air parcels in passive way.

Recent results have shown that there is an acceleration in the spread of the size distribution of droplet populations in the region bordering the cloud and undersaturated ambient. We have analyzed the supersaturation balance in this region, which is typically a highly intermittent shearless turbulent mixing layer, under a condition where there is no mean updraft. We have investigated the evolution of the cloud - clear air interface and of the droplets therein via direct numerical simulations. We have compared horizontal averages of the phase relaxation, evaporation, reaction and condensation times within the cloud-clear air interface for the size distributions of the initial monodisperse and polydisperse droplet populations.

We will also present results on turbulence dispersion in the cloud - clear air interface based on the distance neighbor graph statistics (Richardson, 1926) obtained by tracking water droplets in the Lagrangian framework.

The work was presented during the "Turbulence and Interface, PC Henri Benard Workshop" on June 15-17, Lyon, France.

The present work discusses investigation of the evolution of the cloud - clear air interface and of the droplets therein via direct numerical simulations. We have compared horizontal averages of the phase relaxation, evaporation, reaction and condensation times within the cloud-clear air interface for the size distributions of the initial monodispersed and polydisperse droplets. For the monodisperse population,a clustering of the values of the reaction, phase and evaporation times, that is around 20-30 seconds, is observed in the central area of the mixing layer, just before the location where the maximum value of the supersaturation turbulent flux occurs.

We have analyzed the supersaturation balance in the region bordering the cloud and undersaturated ambient, which is typically a highly intermittent shearless turbulent mixing layer, under a condition where there is no mean updraft. We have compared horizontal averages of the phase relaxation, evaporation, reaction and condensation times within the cloud-clear air interface for the size distributions of the initial monodisperse and polydisperse droplets. For the monodisperse population, a clustering of the values of the reaction, phase and evaporation times, that is around 20-30 seconds, is observed in the central area of the mixing layer, just before the location where the maximum value of the supersaturation  turbulent flux occurs. This clustering of values is similar for the polydisperse population but also includes the condensation time.

The recent paper has been published on Physics of Fluids with a following title:

"Diffusion of turbulence following both stable and unstable step stratification perturbations" 

   Physics of Fluids (2022); https://doi.org/10.1063/5.0090042

     Luca Gallana, Shahbozbek Abdunabiev, Mina Golshan,  Daniela Tordella

The evolution of a two-phase, air and unsaturated water vapor, time decaying, shearless, turbulent layer has been studied in the presence of both stable and unstable perturbations of the normal temperature lapse rate. The top interface between a warm vapor cloud and clear air in the absence of water droplets was considered as the reference dynamics. Direct, three dimensional, numerical simulations were performed within a 6m x 6m wide and 12m high domain, which was hypothesized to be located close to an interface between the warm cloud and clear air. The Taylor micro-scale Reynolds’ number was 250 inside the cloud portion. The squared Froude’s number varied over intervals of [0.4; 981.6] and [-4.0; -19.6]. A sufficiently intense stratification was observed to change the mixing dynamics. The formation of a sub layer inside the shearless layer was observed. The sub-layer, under a stable thermal stratification condition, behaved like a pit of kinetic energy. However, it was observed that kinetic energy transient growth took place under unstable conditions, which led to the formation of an energy peak just below the center of the shearless layer. The scaling law of the energy time variation inside the interface region was quantified: this is an algebraic law with an exponent that depends on the perturbation stratification intensity. The presence of an unstable stratification increased the differences in statistical behavior among the longitudinal velocity derivatives, compared with the unstratified case. Since the mixing process is suppressed in stable cases, small-scale anisotropy is also suppressed.

The paper on the microphysical time scales has been accepted and is already published on Physics of Fluids (AIP).

Recent results have shown that there is an acceleration in the spread of the size distribution of droplet populations in the region bordering the cloud and undersaturated ambient. We have analyzed the supersaturation balance in this region, which is typically a highly intermittent shearless turbulent mixing layer, under a condition where there is no mean updraft. We have investigated the evolution of the cloud - clear air interface and of the droplets therein via direct numerical simulations. We have compared horizontal averages of the phase relaxation, evaporation, reaction and condensation times within the cloud-clear air interface for the size distributions of the initial monodispersed and polydisperse droplets. For the monodisperse population, a clustering of the values of the reaction, phase and evaporation times, that is around 20-30 seconds, is observed in the central area of the mixing layer, just before the location where the maximum value of the supersaturation turbulent flux occurs. This clustering of values is similar for the polydisperse population but also includes the condensation time. The mismatch between the time derivative of the supersaturation and the condensation term in the interfacial mixing layer is correlated with the planar covariance of the horizontal longitudinal velocity derivatives of the carrier air flow and the supersaturation field, thus suggesting that a quasi-linear relationship may exist between these quantities.

The supersaturation local balance equation is considered at a cloud boundary, and the structure of its turbulent production term is inferred from numerical experiments. The transient decay of an unstable-stratified, shearless-mixing layer at a warm cloud top is modeled as an initial value problem, in which the turbulent velocity, the active scalars, and the droplet dynamics are solved concurrently. The evolution of the cloud-clear air interface and the droplets therein is investigated via direct numerical simulations. Both initial monodisperse and polydisperse droplet size distribution cases are treated. We attempt to model the turbulent production of supersaturation - defined as the difference between the time derivative of the supersaturation and the condensation terms - in the mixing layer. The planar averages of the supersaturation production term are clearly correlated with the planar covariance of the computed horizontal velocity derivative and supersaturation fields, thus suggesting that a quasi-linear relationship may exist between these quantities. The value of the non-dimensional proportionality constant is deduced by i) modeling the production term as the interaction of two sinusoidal perturbations with local and global small-scale frequencies, and ii) spatially averaging the production term and the covariance of the supersaturation and the longitudinal velocity derivatives. It has been verified that the value of such proportionality constant does not vary considerably throughout the transient decay and is not sensitive to the initial droplet distribution dispersity.