Universal Spectrum for Atmospheric Suspended Particulates: Comparison with Observations: Data Set I - Rain Formation in Warm Clouds: General Systems Theory - page 53

Chapter 3
Universal Spectrum for Atmospheric Suspended
Particulates: Comparison with Observations:
Data Set I

Abstract Atmospheric flows exhibit self-similar fractal space-time fluctuations on
all space-time scales in association with inverse power law distribution for power
spectra of meteorological parameters such as wind, temperature, etc., and thus
implies long-range correlations, identified as self-organized criticality generic to
dynamical systems in nature. A general systems theory based on classical statistical
physical concepts discussed in Chaps. 1 and 2 visualizes the fractal fluctuations to
result from the coexistence of eddy fluctuations in an eddy continuum, the larger
scale eddies being the integrated mean of enclosed smaller scale eddies. The model
satisfies the maximum entropy principle and predicts that the probability distribu-
tions of component eddy amplitudes and the corresponding variances (power spec-
tra) are quantified by the same universal inverse power law distribution which is a
function of the golden mean. Atmospheric particulates are held in suspension by the
vertical velocity distribution (spectrum). The atmospheric particulate size spectrum
is derived in terms of the model predicted universal inverse power law character-
izing atmospheric eddy spectrum. Model predicted spectrum is in agreement with
the four experimentally determined data sets: (i) CIRPAS mission TARFOX_WAL-
LOPS_SMPS aerosol size distributions, (ii) CIRPAS mission ARM-IOP (Ponca
City, OK) aerosol size distributions, (iii) SAFARI 2000 CV-580 (CARG Aerosol
and Cloud Data) cloud drop size distributions (DSDs), and (iv) TWP-ICE (Darwin,
Australia) rain DSDs.

Keywords Universal spectrum for atmospheric suspended particulates · Fractal
fluctuations in atmospheric flows · Chaos and nonlinear dynamics · TARFOX and
ARM-IOP aerosol size spectra · SAFARI 2000 cloud drop size spectra · TWP-ICE
(Darwin, Australia) rain drop size spectra

3.1 Introduction

Information on the size distribution of atmospheric suspended particulates (aero-
sols, cloud drops, and raindrops) is important for the understanding of the physical
processes relating to the studies in weather, climate, atmospheric electricity, air pol-
lution, and aerosol physics. Atmospheric suspended particulates affect the radiative
balance of the Earth/atmosphere system via the direct effect whereby they scatter