Publications

2025
Bossioli E, Sotiropoulou G, Karalis M, Abel SJ. A stratocumulus to cumulus transition during a cold-air outbreak: The role of aerosols. Atmospheric Research [Internet]. 2025;325:108211. WebsiteAbstract
Cold air outbreaks (CAOs) are phenomena that occur across high latitudes during winter months and favor the development of extensive boundary layer clouds. As the boundary layer evolves, changes in cloud morphology often result in a stratocumulus to cumulus transition (SCT). The onset of precipitation is considered to be a key factor that leads to the break-up of the stratocumulus deck. In this modeling study we investigate the additional role that aerosols have on the SCT within a CAO event in the North Atlantic, by using prognostic fields for both aerosols and cloud droplet number concentrations (Nd). By using two chemical/aerosol schemes we assess and quantify the impact of aerosols on the SCT evolution. Our results indicate that the aerosol load and its chemical composition affect the timing of precipitation initiation and its magnitude and thus the break-up. However, the two schemes reveal contradictory results, which are mainly associated with different aerosol size and chemical composition partitioning between modes and bins. The simulations with the aerosol scheme, which considers the modal approach, show that the reduction of Nd across the SCT is driven by changes in the cloud liquid water content, the sulfate availability, and the fine sea-spray availability in the cumulus region, which suppresses sulfate activation. The Nd decreases mostly follow the decrease in accumulation-mode aerosols. For the scheme that considers the sectional approach, both the stratiform and the cumulus clouds appear sensitive to new particles formation and their competition for water. However, in the cumulus region, the higher updrafts and the greater availability of fine sea salt particles become critical for the activation of small particles. New particle formation and background sulfate concentrations are critical in this pristine environment, while sea salt particles have a significant impact on SCT in both sets of simulations.
Zamora L, Sotiropoulou G, de Boer G, Calmer R, Raut J-C, Wadlow I. Future Directions for Aerosol–Cloud–Precipitation Interaction Research in the Arctic from the QuIESCENT 2024 workshop. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society [Internet]. 2025. Website
Patade S, Kulkarni G, Patade S, Waman D, Sotiropoulou G, Samanta S, Malap N, Prabhakaran T. Importance of secondary ice production in mixed-phase monsoon clouds over the Indian subcontinent. Atmospheric Research [Internet]. 2025;315:107890. WebsiteAbstract
The accurate representation of mixed-phase monsoon clouds and their phase distribution is of great importance for numerical models used to predict monsoon rainfall. Therefore, it is essential for these models to correctly capture the phase fraction of clouds, which includes the proportions of liquid and ice. Ice particle formation in clouds occurs through primary ice production and secondary ice production (SIP). Most weather and climate models tend to overlook secondary SIP mechanisms, often only including rime-splintering. This oversight can introduce biases in the phase partitioning of mixed-phase clouds and monsoon rainfall predictions. In this study, we investigate the roles of three major SIP mechanisms: Hallett-Mossop (HM), droplet shattering (DS), and ice-ice collision (IIC) in mixed-phase monsoon clouds. This investigation is the first of its kind and was conducted using high-resolution simulations of mixed-phase convective clouds observed during the fourth phase of the Cloud Aerosol Interaction and Precipitation Enhancement Experiment (CAIPEEX) over a rain shadow region of India. The default cloud microphysical scheme, which originally included only the HM process, was modified to incorporate additional SIP mechanisms such as DS and IIC. The simulated cloud parameters, including liquid and ice water content and ice number concentration, showed good agreement with airborne measurements. Our findings indicate that IIC is the predominant SIP mechanism, contributing 90 % to the total ice production through SIP. The inclusion of the three SIP mechanisms resulted in an enhancement of ice concentration by three to four orders of magnitude at temperatures warmer than -20 °C. SIP significantly influenced various cloud parameters between 0 to −20 °C, including total ice number concentration, ice crystal mass, rimed mass, liquid water content, and phase fraction. It also influenced the Ice Water Path (IWP), Liquid Water Path (LWP), and cloud top temperature. The rates of several mixed-phase processes were also affected by the SIP mechanisms. Overall, SIP led to a 15 % reduction in accumulated surface precipitation.
2024
Portalakis P, Tombrou M, Kalogiros J, Sotiropoulou G, Savre J, Ekman AML. Studying the effect of sea spray using large eddy simulations coupled with air–sea bulk flux models under strong wind conditions. Meteorology and Atmospheric Physics [Internet]. 2024;136. Website
Schäfer B, David RO, Georgakaki P, Pasquier JT, Sotiropoulou G, Storelvmo T. Simulations of primary and secondary ice production during an Arctic mixed-phase cloud case from the Ny-Ålesund Aerosol Cloud Experiment (NASCENT) campaign. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2024;24:7179 – 7202. Website
Sotiropoulou G, Lewinschal A, Georgakaki P, Phillips VTJ, Patade S, Ekman AML, Nenes A. Sensitivity of Arctic Clouds to Ice Microphysical Processes in the NorESM2 Climate Model. Journal of Climate [Internet]. 2024;37:4275 – 4290. Website
Georgakaki P, Billault-Roux A-C, Foskinis R, Gao K, Sotiropoulou G, Gini M, Takahama S, Eleftheriadis K, Papayannis A, Berne A, et al. Unraveling ice multiplication in winter orographic clouds via in-situ observations, remote sensing and modeling. npj Climate and Atmospheric Science [Internet]. 2024;7. Website
2023
Tan I, Sotiropoulou G, Taylor PC, Zamora L, Wendisch M. A Review of the Factors Influencing Arctic Mixed-Phase Clouds: Progress and Outlook. In: Clouds and Their Climatic Impacts. American Geophysical Union (AGU); 2023. pp. 103-132. WebsiteAbstract
Summary Mixed-phase clouds are ubiquitous in the Arctic and play a critical role in Earth's energy budget at the surface and top-of-the-atmosphere. These clouds typically occupy the lower and mid-level troposphere and are composed of purely supercooled liquid droplets or mixtures of supercooled liquid water droplets and ice crystals. Here, we review progress in our understanding of the factors that control the formation and dissipation of Arctic mixed-phase clouds, including the thermodynamic structure of the lower troposphere, warm and moist air intrusions into the Arctic, large-scale subsidence, and aerosol particles. We then provide a brief survey of numerous Arctic field campaigns that targeted local cloud-controlling factors and follow this with specific examples of how the Arctic Cloud Observations Using airborne measurements during polar Day (ACLOUD)/ Physical feedback of Arctic PBL, Sea ice, Cloud And AerosoL (PASCAL) and Airborne measurements of radiative and turbulent FLUXes of energy and momentum in the Arctic boundary layer (AFLUX) field campaigns that took place in the vicinity of Svalbard in 2019 were able to advance our understanding on this topic to demonstrate the value of field campaigns. Finally, we conclude with a discussion of the outlook of future research in the study of Arctic cloud-controlling factors and provide several recommendations for the observational and modeling community to advance our understanding of the role of Arctic mixed-phase clouds in a rapidly changing climate.
2022
de Boer G, McCusker GY, Sotiropoulou G, Gramlich Y, Browse J, Raut J-C. Furthering Understanding of Aerosol–Cloud–Precipitation Interactions in the Arctic. Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society [Internet]. 2022;103:E2484 – E2491. Website
Karalis M, Sotiropoulou G, Abel SJ, Bossioli E, Georgakaki P, Methymaki G, Nenes A, Tombrou M. Effects of secondary ice processes on a stratocumulus to cumulus transition during a cold-air outbreak. Atmospheric Research [Internet]. 2022;277. Website
Georgakaki P, Sotiropoulou G, Vignon É, Billault-Roux A-C, Berne A, Nenes A. Secondary ice production processes in wintertime alpine mixed-phase clouds. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2022;22:1965 – 1988. Website
2021
Sotiropoulou G, Ickes L, Nenes A, Ekman AML. Ice multiplication from ice-ice collisions in the high Arctic: Sensitivity to ice habit, rimed fraction, ice type and uncertainties in the numerical description of the process. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2021;21:9741 – 9760. Website
Bossioli E, Sotiropoulou G, Methymaki G, Tombrou M. Modeling Extreme Warm-Air Advection in the Arctic During Summer: The Effect of Mid-Latitude Pollution Inflow on Cloud Properties. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres [Internet]. 2021;126. Website
Vignon É, Alexander SP, DeMott PJ, Sotiropoulou G, Gerber F, Hill TCJ, Marchand R, Nenes A, Berne A. Challenging and Improving the Simulation of Mid-Level Mixed-Phase Clouds Over the High-Latitude Southern Ocean. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres [Internet]. 2021;126. Website
Sotiropoulou G, Vignon E, Young G, Morrison H, O'Shea SJ, Lachlan-Cope T, Berne A, Nenes A. Secondary ice production in summer clouds over the Antarctic coast: An underappreciated process in atmospheric models. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2021;21:755 – 771. Website
2020
Achtert P, Oconnor E, Brooks I, Sotiropoulou G, Shupe M, Pospichal B, Brooks B, Tjernström M. Properties of Arctic liquid and mixed-phase clouds from shipborne Cloudnet observations during ACSE 2014. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2020;20:14983 – 15002. Website
Sotiropoulou G, Sullivan S, Savre J, Lloyd G, Lachlan-Cope T, Ekman AML, Nenes A. The impact of secondary ice production on Arctic stratocumulus. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2020;20:1301 – 1316. Website
2019
Sotiropoulou G, Bossioli E, Tombrou M. Modeling Extreme Warm-Air Advection in the Arctic: The Role of Microphysical Treatment of Cloud Droplet Concentration. Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres [Internet]. 2019;124:3492 – 3519. Website
2018
Sotiropoulou G, Tjernström M, Savre J, Ekman AML, Hartung K, Sedlar J. Large-eddy simulation of a warm-air advection episode in the summer Arctic. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society [Internet]. 2018;144:2449 – 2462. Website
2016
Sotiropoulou G, Tjernström M, Sedlar J, Achtert P, Brooks BJ, Brooks IM, Perssond OPG, Prytherch J, Salisbury DJ, Shuped MD, et al. Atmospheric conditions during the arctic clouds in summer experiment (ACSE): Contrasting open water and sea ice surfaces during melt and freeze-up seasons. Journal of Climate [Internet]. 2016;29:8721 – 8744. Website
Sotiropoulou G, Sedlar J, Forbes R, Tjernström M. Summer Arctic clouds in the ECMWF forecast model: An evaluation of cloud parametrization schemes. Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society [Internet]. 2016;142:387 – 400. Website
2015
Tjernström M, Shupe MD, Brooks IM, Persson OPG, Prytherch J, Salisbury DJ, Sedlar J, Achtert P, Brooks BJ, Johnston PE, et al. Warm-air advection, air mass transformation and fog causes rapid ice melt. Geophysical Research Letters [Internet]. 2015;42:5594 – 5602. Website
2014
Sotiropoulou G, Sedlar J, Tjernström M, Shupe MD, Brooks IM, Persson POG. The thermodynamic structure of summer Arctic stratocumulus and the dynamic coupling to the surface. Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics [Internet]. 2014;14:12573 – 12592. Website