Instability driven by settling and evaporation in a shear flow: a model for asperitas clouds

S. Ravichandran; Rama Govindarajan

doi:10.1103/physrevfluids.7.010501

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arXiv · 2108.04930

Instability driven by settling and evaporation in a shear flow: a model for asperitas clouds

S. Ravichandran·Rama Govindarajan

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Abstract

We study, by direct numerical simulations in two and three dimensions, the instability caused by the settling and evaporation of water droplets out of a cloudy layer saturated with vapour into a dry sub-cloud ambient, under conditions where mammatus clouds were shown to form by [1], but with the addition of background shear. We show that shear changes the type of cloud formation qualitatively, from mammatus-like to a newly identified cloud type called asperitas. Intermediate levels of shear are shown to be needed. Shear suppresses the growth of small-scale perturbations, giving rise to smooth, long-lasting structures, and smaller rates of mixing. Three-dimensionality is shown to make a qualitative difference, unlike in mammatus clouds. We also show that under non-cloud-like conditions, the instability can be very different.

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S. Ravichandran, Rama Govindarajan. 2021-11-09. Instability driven by settling and evaporation in a shear flow: a model for asperitas clouds. https://doi.org/10.1103/physrevfluids.7.010501

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