Articles | Volume 15, issue 9
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3879-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-15-3879-2022
© Author(s) 2022. This work is distributed under
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Development and technical paper
| 
13 May 2022
Development and technical paper |
| 13 May 2022
| 13 May 2022
On numerical broadening of particle-size spectra: a condensational growth study using PyMPDATA 1.0
Michael A. Olesik
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Faculty of Physics, Astronomy and Applied Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Kraków,
Poland
Jakub Banaśkiewicz
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Piotr Bartman
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Manuel Baumgartner
Zentrum für Datenverarbeitung, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Institute for Atmospheric Physics, Johannes Gutenberg University Mainz, Mainz, Germany
Simon Unterstrasser
Institute of Atmospheric Physics, German Aerospace Center (DLR), Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany
Sylwester Arabas
CORRESPONDING AUTHOR
Department of Atmospheric Sciences, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, USA
Faculty of Mathematics and Computer Science, Jagiellonian University, Kraków, Poland
Related authors
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Caleb Akhtar Martínez, Annemarie Lottermoser, Simon Unterstrasser, Sebastian D. Eastham, and Jerome P. Jarrett
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5576, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-5576, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics (ACP).
Short summary
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We study how different computer models predict the climate impact of contrails, the ice clouds that form behind aircraft. Efforts to reduce their impact depend on these models. By comparing simpler and more detailed models under the same weather conditions, we find that modelling choices can lead to substantially different results, even when comparing models of similar complexity. This suggests that contrail mitigation decisions should be made in a way that is robust to modelling differences.
Dennis Hillenbrand and Simon Unterstrasser
J. Env. Com. Air Transp. Sys. Discuss., https://doi.org/10.5194/jecats-2026-16, https://doi.org/10.5194/jecats-2026-16, 2026
Preprint under review for JECATS
Short summary
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We study contrail formation behind future fuel cell-based aircraft fueled by hydrogen. Simulations show that, under certain conditions, small droplets can form via a process not occurring in current plumes. This can increase ice crystal numbers in contrails, boosting their climate impact. The effect is strongest in cold air and for high plume mixing rates with air. We suggest to decrease the mixing rate and exhaust humidity by technical design to reduce the climate impact of such aircraft.
Simon Braun, Magdalena Pühl, Andreas Marsing, Daniel Sauer, Gregor Neumann, Elena de la Torre Castro, Valerian Hahn, Michael Lichtenstern, Paul Stock, Christopher Heckl, Dennis Hillenbrand, Anke Roiger, Christiane Voigt, Simon Unterstraßer, Arne Vasenden, Roberta Vasenden, Jean Cammas, Florian Thorey, Catherine Mackay, Charles Renard, and Tina Jurkat-Witschas
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2887, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2887, 2026
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In this work, we share the results of first in-flight emission and contrail measurements behind a fuel cell exhaust emulator, with the goal of quantifying the contrail properties for this new aviation propulsion concept. An artificial dilution tracer system was used to assess plume dilution and derive emission indices. At ambient temperatures close to the homogeneous freezing threshold, a strong temperature-dependence of the number of contrail ice crystals, due to droplet freezing, was observed.
Sylwester Arabas, Agnieszka Żaba, Daria Klimaszewska, Emma C. Ware, Clare E. Singer, Manhal Alhilali, Jason Barr, Daniel G. Partridge, Shin-ichiro Shima, and Robert Wood
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3906, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-3906, 2026
This preprint is open for discussion and under review for Geoscientific Model Development (GMD).
Short summary
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The paper focuses on the use of Python and its package ecosystem for modeling the dynamics of atmospheric aerosol and cloud droplets. We highlight that concise code and high-level abstractions (incl. programmatic expression of physical units) can be used without performance tradeoffs. The paper features two cloud-microphysics classics: an adiabatic parcel model and a Monte-Carlo coagulation solver. The presented code constitutes a single Jupyter notebook that can be executed "in the cloud".
Wenhan Tang, Sylwester Arabas, Jeffrey H. Curtis, Daniel A. Knopf, Matthew West, and Nicole Riemer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 9221–9255, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-9221-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-9221-2026, 2026
Short summary
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We studied how aerosol particles help form ice in clouds. Using new theory and detailed computer simulations, we found that the way different materials are mixed within these particles has a strong impact on how much ice forms. When ice-forming material is spread across all particles, more droplets freeze than when it is only in a few. This result means that to better predict clouds and climate, models need to account for how particle materials are mixed.
Hannes Bruder, Robin N. Thor, Malte Niklaß, Katrin Dahlmann, Roland Eichinger, Florian Linke, Volker Grewe, Sigrun Matthes, and Simon Unterstrasser
Geosci. Model Dev., 19, 3551–3567, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-3551-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-19-3551-2026, 2026
Short summary
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We develop an easy-to-use tool to estimate the per-flight climate effect of CO2 and non-CO2 emissions, based only on aircraft size as well as origin and destination airports. The implemented model results from a comparison of Multiple and Symbolic Regression approaches and exhibits a mean relative error of 21 % with respect to climate response model results. The simplified method is designed for climate footprint assessment and covers jet-powered passenger aircraft with over 20 seats.
Tim Lüttmer, Sylwester Arabas, and Peter Spichtinger
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2217, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-2217, 2026
Short summary
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Homogeneous freezing describes the spontaneous freezing of supercooled droplets, with the probability depending on temperature, droplet size, and elapsed time. Droplets freeze across a range of temperatures rather than all at once, and faster updrafts and larger droplets lead to freezing at warmer temperatures. Once some droplets freeze, the growing ice crystals deplete the surrounding vapour, causing the remaining droplets to evaporate. This affects the number of ice crystals in the cloud.
Josef Zink, Cornelius Weiß-Rehm, Simon Unterstrasser, and Ulrike Burkhardt
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1088, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2026-1088, 2026
Short summary
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The study introduces a novel parameterization for the number of contrail ice crystals formed on ambient aerosols entrained into the exhaust plume behind aircraft burning hydrogen. This parameterization can be integrated into large-scale models to assess the radiative impacts of contrails originating from a fleet of aircraft with hydrogen combustion.
Vanessa Santos Gabriel, Luca Bugliaro, Mara Montag, Sabrina Ries, Ziming Wang, Kai Widmaier, Matteo Arico, Simon Unterstrasser, Johanna Mayer, Deniz Menekay, Andreas Marsing, Elena de la Torre Castro, Liam Megill, Monika Scheibe, and Christiane Voigt
Earth Syst. Sci. Data, 18, 2397–2412, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2397-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/essd-18-2397-2026, 2026
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We provide observations of the geostationary Meteosat satellite with contrails labeled by three people complemented with detailed cloud information. Contrails influence climate but are hard to identify in satellite imagery. With this study, we support contrail detection development and evaluation, stress the subjectivity of human labeling and reveal which meteorological conditions highlight or hide contrails. This dataset contributes to a better understanding of aviation’s climate impact.
Josef Zink and Simon Unterstrasser
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 3145–3165, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3145-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3145-2026, 2026
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The climate impact of aviation-induced contrail cirrus clouds is strongly influenced by the number of ice crystals that form in the wake of an aircraft under certain conditions. In this study, we investigate how engine-related aspects influence the number of ice crystals formed for hydrogen combustion. We derive suitable (scaling) relations that can be integrated into large-scale models used to estimate the climate impact of contrail cirrus clouds.
Josef Zink, Simon Unterstrasser, and Ulrike Burkhardt
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 26, 3125–3143, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3125-2026, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-26-3125-2026, 2026
Short summary
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The climate impact of aviation-induced contrail cirrus is strongly influenced by the number of ice crystals that form in an aircraft's exhaust plume. In this study, we systematically investigate the key microphysical processes of contrail formation for hydrogen combustion. A large simulation data set provides the basis for a data-driven parameterization of ice crystal number that can be integrated into large-scale models.
Gregor Neumann, Andreas Marsing, Theresa Harlass, Daniel Sauer, Simon Braun, Magdalena Pühl, Christopher Heckl, Paul Stock, Elena De La Torre Castro, Valerian Hahn, Anke Roiger, Christiane Voigt, Simon Unterstraßer, Jean Cammas, Charles Renard, Roberta Vasenden, Arnold Vasenden, and Tina Jurkat-Witschas
Atmos. Meas. Tech., 18, 6795–6816, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6795-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/amt-18-6795-2025, 2025
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This study presents the first successful in-flight emission characterization of a turboprop engine using a fully autonomous airborne measurement platform, offering new insights into the atmospheric impacts of regional aviation. By equipping the high-altitude Grob G 520 Egrett with a suite of custom and modified commercial instruments, we demonstrate precise, high-resolution measurements of aerosol particles, trace gases, and contrail ice in the engine exhaust plume at cruise altitudes.
Annemarie Lottermoser and Simon Unterstrasser
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 25, 7903–7924, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7903-2025, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-25-7903-2025, 2025
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Contrail cirrus significantly contributes to aviation's overall climate impact. As hydrogen combustion and fuel cell use are emerging technologies for aircraft propulsion, we simulated individual contrails from hydrogen propulsion during the first 6 min after exhaust emission, termed the vortex phase. The ice crystal loss during that stage is crucial, as the number of ice crystals has a large impact on the further evolution of contrails into contrail cirrus and their radiative forcing.
Birte Klug, Ralf Weigel, Konrad Kandler, Markus Rapp, Manuel Baumgartner, Thomas Böttger, Klaus Dieter Wilhelm, Harald Rott, Thomas Kenntner, Oliver Drescher, and Anna Hundertmark
EGUsphere, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-510, https://doi.org/10.5194/egusphere-2025-510, 2025
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The nuclei onto which noctilucent clouds (NLC) form are largely unknown. We investigated the development of an inertia-based particle collector allowing for sampling NLC particles during a sounding rocket flight for off-line single particle physico-chemical analyzes. Computational fluid dynamics simulations (for Mach numbers 1.31 and 1.75) support the design and development process in reference to a basic mechanical concept of particle sampling and sample storage, which is also presented here.
Andreas Bier, Simon Unterstrasser, Josef Zink, Dennis Hillenbrand, Tina Jurkat-Witschas, and Annemarie Lottermoser
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 24, 2319–2344, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2319-2024, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-24-2319-2024, 2024
Short summary
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Using hydrogen as aviation fuel affects contrails' climate impact. We study contrail formation behind aircraft with H2 combustion. Due to the absence of soot emissions, contrail ice crystals are assumed to form only on ambient particles mixed into the plume. The ice crystal number, which strongly varies with temperature and aerosol number density, is decreased by more than 80 %–90 % compared to kerosene contrails. However H2 contrails can form at lower altitudes due to higher H2O emissions.
Emily de Jong, John Ben Mackay, Oleksii Bulenok, Anna Jaruga, and Sylwester Arabas
Geosci. Model Dev., 16, 4193–4211, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4193-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/gmd-16-4193-2023, 2023
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In clouds, collisional breakup occurs when two colliding droplets splinter into new, smaller fragments. Particle-based modeling approaches often do not represent breakup because of the computational demands of creating new droplets. We present a particle-based breakup method that preserves the computational efficiency of these methods. In a series of simple demonstrations, we show that this representation alters cloud processes in reasonable and expected ways.
Peter Spichtinger, Patrik Marschalik, and Manuel Baumgartner
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 23, 2035–2060, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2035-2023, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-23-2035-2023, 2023
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We investigate the impact of the homogeneous nucleation rate on nucleation events in cirrus. As long as the slope of the rate is represented sufficiently well, the resulting ice crystal number concentrations are not crucially affected. Even a change in the prefactor over orders of magnitude does not change the results. However, the maximum supersaturation during nucleation events shows strong changes. This quantity should be used for diagnostics instead of the popular nucleation threshold.
Andreas Bier, Simon Unterstrasser, and Xavier Vancassel
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 823–845, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-823-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-823-2022, 2022
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We investigate contrail formation in an aircraft plume with a particle-based multi-trajectory 0D model. Due to the high plume heterogeneity, contrail ice crystals form first near the plume edge and then in the plume centre. The number of ice crystals varies strongly with ambient conditions and soot properties near the contrail formation threshold. Our results imply that the multi-trajectory approach does not necessarily lead to improved scientific results compared to a single mean trajectory.
Manuel Baumgartner, Christian Rolf, Jens-Uwe Grooß, Julia Schneider, Tobias Schorr, Ottmar Möhler, Peter Spichtinger, and Martina Krämer
Atmos. Chem. Phys., 22, 65–91, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, https://doi.org/10.5194/acp-22-65-2022, 2022
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An important mechanism for the appearance of ice particles in the upper troposphere at low temperatures is homogeneous nucleation. This process is commonly described by the
Koop line, predicting the humidity at freezing. However, laboratory measurements suggest that the freezing humidities are above the Koop line, motivating the present study to investigate the influence of different physical parameterizations on the homogeneous freezing with the help of a detailed numerical model.
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Short summary
In systems such as atmospheric clouds, droplets undergo growth through condensation of vapor. The broadness of the resultant size spectrum of droplets influences precipitation likelihood and the radiative properties of clouds. One of the inherent limitations of simulations of the problem is the so-called numerical diffusion causing overestimation of the spectrum width, hence the term numerical broadening. In the paper, we take a closer look at one of the algorithms used in this context: MPDATA.
In systems such as atmospheric clouds, droplets undergo growth through condensation of vapor....
