Clouds are important for their hydrological, thermodynamical, and radiative effects. That is, they redistribute water all over the globe, transport energy by up-taking and releasing the latent heat, and scatter/absorb solar and terrestrial radiation fluxes.
One question lingering in my mind is: which cloud phase (i.e., ice & liquid) possesses the most cloud water? Ice or Liquid? The reason I am interested in this question is that the understanding of the facts of cloud phase and its representation in climate models are relevant to various key problems, for example cloud microphysics (aerosol-cloud-precipitation interaction) and cloud radiative feedback (how cloud phase change modulates the scattering/absorption properties of clouds in a warming climate).
I have sawn some publications (e.g. Huang et al., 2015, JGR, doi:10.1002/2014JD022779) showing that there is more ice water than liquid water, globally. But I also found the retrieval of cloud water, especially ice water, suffer from tremendous uncertainty. So, I want to hear from the many talented people here, about your knowledge and opinions on this question. Thank you very much.
Nearly only in the cirrus clouds, ice droplets can be observed. In most other clouds, such as the Cumulus-Stratus, there are droplets of water in the liquid.
Yeah, that's right. It seems that mixed-phase clouds (where ice and liquid occur concurrently) are widespread in the real world, but they are less simulated in climate models according to some publications. Saadoun Salimi
Dear Xianwen Jing
The answer depends on the temperature in the specific cloud, it is commonly accepted that:
”At temperatures between 0°C and -15°C most clouds are composed of supercooled water droplets. Between -15°C and -40°C most clouds contain a mixture of ice crystals and supercooled water droplets”
https://www.skybrary.aero/index.php/Supercooled_Water_Droplets
The experience derived from aviation is probably the best to help you in resolving your dilemma
Further to the comment by Janusz Pudykiewicz temperature in the troposphere falls with altitude. The lapse rate is approximately -6.5 K per km. So, the the ratio of ice crystals to water will increase with altitude.
My apologies if I am stating the obvious.
I agree with the above except that between 0 and -15C you can also have presence of ice. Particularly biological aerosols such as bacteria (Pseudomonas) if a very efficient ice nuclei up to -2C , fungi and pollen such as birch pollen which can act as ice nuclei up to -8C. So ice crystals can form also at temperature warmer than -15C mostly due to biological aerosols and perhaps some feldspar which also may have efficient ice nuclei habilety. Think about snow maker for ski resort. They use Pseudomonas (SNOWMAX is the commercial name of the product) to make snow at temepratures just below 0C !.
check this
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hKT_SGK2qtY
Kanji et al. Overview of ice nucleating particles. AMS Monographs. DOI: 10.1175/AMSMONOGRAPHS-D-16-0006.1
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