Large deviations and rain showers

Abstract

Rainfall from ice-free cumulus clouds requires collisions of large numbers of microscopic droplets to create every raindrop. The onset of rain showers can be surprisingly rapid, much faster than the mean time required for a single collision. Large-deviation theory is used to explain this observation.

4 pages, 2 figures

References in corpus (4)

• The large deviation approach to statistical mechanics
• Caustic activation of rain showers
• Prevalence of the sling effect for enhancing collision rates in turbulent suspensions
• Convective Ripening and Initiation of Rainfall

Cited by in corpus (9)

• Collisional Aggregation due to Turbulence
• Condensational and collisional growth of cloud droplets in a turbulent environment
• Effect of turbulence on collisional growth of cloud droplets
• Collision fluctuations of lucky droplets with superdroplets
• The waltz of tiny droplets and the flow they live in
• Convergent Chaos
• Coalescence preference and droplet size inequality during fluid phase segregation
• Quantifying the lucky droplet model for rainfall
• Effects of correlated collisions and intermittency on the growth of lucky droplets