Suppression of ice nucleation in supercooled water under temperature gradients

Understanding the behaviours of ice nucleation in non-isothermal conditions is of great importance for the preparation and retention of supercooled water. Here ice nucleation in supercooled water under temperature gradients is analyzed thermodynamically based on classical nucleation theory(CNT). Given that the free energy barrier for nucleation is dependent on temperature, different from a uniform temperature usually used in CNT, an assumption of linear temperature distribution in the ice nucleus was made and taken into consideration in analysis. The critical radius of the ice nucleus for nucleation and the corresponding nucleation model in the presence of a temperature gradient were obtained. It is observed that the critical radius is determined not only by the degree of supercooling, the only dependence in CNT, but also by the temperature gradient and even the Young's contact angle. Effects of temperature gradient on the change in free energy, critical radius,nucleation barrier and nucleation rate with different contact angles and degrees of supercooling are illustrated successively.The results show that a temperature gradient will increase the nucleation barrier and decrease the nucleation rate, particularly in the cases of large contact angle and low degree of supercooling. In addition, there is a critical temperature gradient for a given degree of supercooling and contact angle, at the higher of which the nucleation can be suppressed completely.

Aircraft Observation and Simulation of the Supercooled Liquid Water Layer in a Warm Conveyor Belt over North China

This paper studied a snow event over North China on 21 February 2017,using aircraft in-situ data,a Lagrangian analysis tool,and WRF simulations with different microphysical schemes to investigate the supercooled layer of warm conveyor belts(WCBs).Based on the aircraft data,we found a fine vertical structure within clouds in the WCB and highlighted a 1-2 km thin supercooled liquid water layer with a maximum Liquid Water Content(LWC) exceeding0.5 g kg^(-1) during the vertical aircraft observation.Although the main features of thermodynamic profiles were essentially captured by both modeling schemes,the microphysical quantities exhibited large diversity with different microphysics schemes.The conventional Morrison two-moment scheme showed remarkable agreement with in-situ observations,both in terms of the thermodynamic structure and the supercooled liquid water layer.However,the microphysical structure of the WCB clouds,in terms of LWC and IWC,was not apparent in HUJI fast bin scheme.To reduce such uncertainty,future work may focus on improving the representation of microphysics in bin schemes with in-situ data and using similar assumptions for all schemes to isolate the impact of physics.

Fragile to strong crossover and Widom line in supercooled water： A comparative study

The aim of this paper is to discuss the relationship between the dynamics and thermodynamics of water in the supercooled region. Reviewed case studies comprehend bulk water simulated with the SPC/E, TIP4P and TIP4P/2005 potentials, water at protein interfaces, and water in solution with electrolytes. Upon supercooling, the fragile to strong crossover in the s-relaxation of water is found to occur when the Widom line emanating from the liquid-liquid critical point is crossed. This appears to be a general characteristic of supercooled water, not depending on the applied interaction potential and/or different local environments.

A molecular dynamics study on surface properties of supercooled water

Molecular dynamics simulations were performed to study the surface properties of water in a temperature range from 228 to 293 K by using the extended simple point charge (SPC/E) and four-site TIP4P potentials. The calculated surface tension increases with the decrease of temperature, and moreover the slopes of the surface tension-temperature curves show a weak rise below 273 K, whereas no obvious anomalies appear near 228 K, which accords with the previous experiments. Compared with the measured values, the SPC/E potential shows a good agreement, and the TIP4P potential underestimates the surface tension. The main reason for that may be the reasonable description of the surface structure of supercooled water for the SPC/E. When simulating the orientational distributions of water molecules near the surface, the SPC/E potential produces higher ordering and larger surface potentials than the TIP4P potential.

Dissociation behavior of “dry water” C_3H_8 hydrate below ice point:Effect of phase state of unreacted residual water on a mechanism of gas hydrates dissociation

The results on a dissociation behavior of propane hydrates prepared from ＂dry water＂ and contained unreacted residual water in the form of ice inclusions or supercooled liquid water（water solution of gas） were presented for temperatures below 273 K.The temperature ramping or pressure release method was used for the dissociation of propane hydrate samples.It was found that the mechanism of gas hydrate dissociation at temperatures below 273 K depended on the phase state of unreacted water in the hydrate sample.Gas hydrates dissociated into ice and gas if the ice inclusions were in the hydrate sample.The samples of propane hydrates with inclusions of unreacted supercooled water only（without ice inclusions） dissociated into supercooled water and gas below the pressure of the supercooled water-hydrate-gas metastable equilibrium.

Identifying Supercooled Liquid Water in Cloud Based on Airborne Observations: Correlation of Cloud Particle Number Concentration with Icing Probability and Proportion of Spherical Particles

Identifying supercooled liquid water(SLW)in clouds is critical for weather modification,aviation safety,and atmospheric radiation calculations.Currently,aircraft identification in the SLW area mostly depends on emprical estimation of cloud particle number concentration(N_(c))in China,and scientific verification and quantitative identification criteria are urgently needed.In this study,the observations are from the Fast Cloud Droplets Probe,Rosemount ice detector(RICE),and Cloud Particle Imager(CP_(i))onboard a King Air aircraft during seven flights in 2018 and 2019 over central and eastern China.Based on this,the correlation among N_(c),the proportion of spherical particles(P_(s)),and the probability of icing(P_(i))in supercooled stratiform and cumulus-stratus clouds is statistically analyzed.Subsequently,this study proposes a method to identify SLW areas using N_(c) in combination with ambient temperature.The reliability of this method is evaluated through the true skill statistics(TSS)and threat score(TS)methods.Numerous airborne observations during the seven flights reveal a strong correlation among Nc,P_(s),and P_(i)at the temperature from 0 to−18°C.When Nc is greater than a certain threshold of 5 cm^(−3),there is always the SLW,i.e.,P_(i)and P_(s)are high.Evaluation results demonstrate that the TSS and TS values for Nc=5 cm^(−3)are higher than those for Nc<5 cm^(−3),and a larger Nc threshold(>5 cm^(−3))corresponds to a higher SLW identification hit rate and a higher SLW content.Therefore,Nc=5 cm^(−3)can be used as the minimum criterion for identifying the SLW in clouds at temperature lower than 0°C.The SLW identification method proposed in this study is especially helpful in common situations where aircraft are equipped with only Nc probes and without the CP_(i)and RICE.

The Boson peak in confined water： An experimental investigation of the liquid-liquid phase transition hypothesis

The Boson peak （BP） of deeply cooled confined water is studied by using inelastic neutron scattering （INS） in a large interval of the （P, T） phase plane. By taking into account the different behavior of such a collective vibrational mode in both strong and fragile glasses as well as in glass-forming materials, we were able to determine the Widom line that characterizes supercooled bulk water within the frame of the liquid-liquid phase transition （LLPT） hypothesis. The peak frequency and width of the BP correlated with the water polymorphism of the LLPT scenario, allowing us to distinguish the ＂low-density liquid＂ （LDL） and ＂high-density liquid＂ （HDL） phases in deeply cooled bulk water. Moreover, the BP properties afford a further confirmation of the Widom line temperature Tw as the （P, T） locus in which the local structure of water transforms from a predominately LDL form to a predominately HDL form.

Study of Aircraft Icing Warning Algorithm Based on Millimeter Wave Radar

In order to avoid accidents due to aircraft icing, an algorithm for identifying supercooled water was studied. Specifically, a threshold method based on millimeter wave radar, lidar, and radiosonde was used to retrieve the coverage area of supercooled water and a fuzzy logic algorithm was used to classify the observed meteorological targets. The macrophysical characteristics of supercooled water could be accurately identified by combing the threshold method with the fuzzy logic algorithm. In order to acquire microphysical characteristics of supercooled water in a mixed phase, the unimodal spectral distribution of supercooled water was extracted from a bimodal or trimodal spectral distribution of a mixed phase cloud, which was then used to retrieve the effective radius and liquid water content of supercooled water by using an empirical formula. These retrieved macro- and micro-physical characteristics of supercooled water can be used to guide aircrafts during takeoff, flight, and landing to avoid dangerous areas.