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Abstract

A large eddy simulation (LES) model has been used to investigate the role of various external parameters and physical processes in the life-cycle of contrails. The model simulations indicate that the contrail evolution is controlled primarily by humidity, temperature and static stability of the ambient air and secondarily by the baroclinicity of the atmosphere. Moreover, the contrails generated from LESs have been used within a two-dimensional radiative transfer scheme to elucidate the effect of cloud inhomogeneity on the area averaged radiative properties of contrails. The results obtained indicate that differences in shortwave cloud albedo between homogeneous and inhomogeneous conditions remain small as long as the optical depth is smaller than one. For higher optical depths larger differences were obtained at which the albedo for horizontally homogeneous conditions is always larger than the corresponding value for inhomogeneous conditions.