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DY: Fachverband Dynamik und Statistische Physik

DY 26: Fluid dynamics II

DY 26.1: Hauptvortrag

Donnerstag, 28. Februar 2008, 14:00–14:30, MA 001

Statistical physics of atmospheric clouds — •Raymond A. Shaw — Leibniz-Institute for Tropospheric Research, Leipzig, DE — Department of Physics, Michigan Technological University, Houghton, USA

Atmospheric clouds, a crucial piece of the climate change problem, are iconic as visualizations of turbulence. The ubiquity of random turbulence in clouds, over a large range of spatial and temporal scales, suggests that statistical physics is a useful approach for obtaining simplified representations of such complex systems. Some of the many aspects of turbulence interacting with cloud particles and radiation fields will be reviewed: from inhomogeneous mixing, to inertial clustering, to stochastic coalescence. The fundamental role of the Lagrangian viewpoint in the cloud-particle coalescence problem will be discussed in the context of a toy model of stochastic rain formation. This provides a context for discussing the emerging recognition of the dominant role of fluctuations in cloud processes.

Support from the Alexander von Humboldt Foundation and the US National Science Foundation is gratefully acknowledged. The work described here has benefited greatly from my interaction with the International Collaboration for Turbulence Research (www.ictr.eu).