ACP Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics ACP 1680-7324 Copernicus GmbH Göttingen, Germany 10.5194/acp-9-7481-2009 Analytical treatment of ice sublimation and test of sublimation parameterisations in two–moment ice microphysics models Gierens K. 1 Bretl S. 1 Deutsches Zentrum für Luft- und Raumfahrt, Institut für Physik der Atmosphäre, Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany 07 10 2009 9 19 7481 7490 This is an open-access article ditributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are credited. This article is available from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/7481/2009/acp-9-7481-2009.html The full text article is available as a PDF file from http://www.atmos-chem-phys.net/9/7481/2009/acp-9-7481-2009.pdf

We derive an analytic solution to the spectral growth/sublimation equation for ice crystals and apply it to idealised cases. The results are used to test parameterisations of the ice sublimation process in two–moment bulk microphysics models. Although it turns out that the relation between number loss fraction and mass loss fraction is not a function since it is not unique, it seems that a functional parameterisation is the best that one can do in a bulk model. Testing a more realistic case with humidity oscillations shows that artificial crystal loss can occur in simulations of mature cirrus clouds with relative humidity fluctuating about ice saturation.

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