Turbulent mixing of a cloud with the environment: two-phase evaporating flow. Numerical simulations, laboratory experiments and field measurements

A brief overview of numerical simulations, laboratory experiments and in-situ measurements aimed at investigation of the cloud-clear air interfacial mixing, conducted in recent years at the Institute of Geophysics, University of Warsaw is presented. The most interesting finding from these studies is that the evaporative cooling at the interface separating cloudy and clear filaments results in density differences in scale of centimeters. This effect influences smallest scales of turbulent motions through production of TKE by buoyancy forces and makes the small-scale turbulence anisotropic.