Designing Cloud Chamber for Simulate the Microphysics Processes in the Formation of Ice Crystals

Abstract

The simulate microphysical processes in the atmosphere, a cloud chamber, which behaves as the atmosphere, has been designed and fabricated in order to be used to execute several atmospheric experiments. These experiments allow a better understanding of clear visual cloud formation. The executed temperature and saturated pressure experiments clarify the basic mechanisms of the ice crystals nucleation, which in contrast, represent the core of the cloud microphysics. The cloud chamber can represent an isolated environment that deals with a certain volume of pure air and contains certain nucleation particles or ice nuclei. The temperature range in such a chamber is similar to that found at the mid-latitudes between the surface of the earth and the top of the troposphere. Thus, it is possible to simulate clouds of the type of Cirrostratus at the bottom of the chamber. It has been designed with dimensions of 22×22×59 cm3 and made of 3mm in thickness copper with a purity of 99.9%, and thermal conductivity of 401 W/m.°K.