Cluster ions and ice particle nucleation: Positive feedback at the summer mesospause

Details Cluster ions and ice particle nucleation: Positive feedback at the summer mesospause Cluster ions and ice particle nucleation: Positive feedback at the summer mesospause

Aug 2002

adsabs.harvard.edu/cgi-bin/nph-data_query?bibcode=2002georl..29p..29g&link_type=abstract

Geophysical Research Letters, Volume 29, Issue 16, pp. 29-1, CiteID 1782, DOI 10.1029/2002GL015146

Other

8

Atmospheric Composition And Structure: Aerosols And Particles (0345, 4801), Ionosphere: Ion Chemistry And Composition (0335), Ionosphere: Ionosphere/Atmosphere Interactions (0335), Ionosphere: Ionospheric Irregularities

Scientific paper

Large proton hydrate clusters H+(H2O)n can act as condensation nuclei for ice particles near the polar summer mesopause. However, laboratory data pose strong requirements on temperature and humidity for this nucleation mechanism to be feasible. Growth to sufficient cluster sizes is governed by competition between clustering reactions and recombination with free electrons. Since the abundance of free electrons can be strongly reduced by capture to ice particles, the presence of ice particles enhances the growth of cluster ions. This leads to a positive feedback mechanism with particle nucleation being favored in regions where particles already exist. Since this mechanism can amplify irregularities in the ionospheric particle and charge distribution, it is of potential interest for the understanding of polar mesosphere summer echoes (PMSE) and other layered phenomena. We demonstrate these ideas using a dusty ion-chemical model of the D-region.

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