Franziska Glassmeier (MPI for Meteorology)

Multiscale Cloud Physics

The complexity of clouds not only puzzles the casual observer but also challenges our understanding of the climate system. The processes that make clouds so hard to capture span a wide range of scales, from the formation of cloud droplets on aerosol particles to shifts between cloud regime as large-scale conditions change. At intermediate scales, cloud fields organize into mesoscale patterns. In this talk, I will describe nonlinear transitions between distinct mesoscale states and how they arise from the coupling of mesoscale processes with processes at smaller and larger scales. This illustrates how concepts from dynamical-systems theory and statistical physics can complement process-based atmospheric science in understanding multiscale cloud dynamics.