A laboratory study of the ice nucleating ability of pollen in Beijing

Immersion freezing is an important heterogeneous ice nucleation process in mixed-phase clouds. Many researches on immersion freezing focus on the parameterization using the classical nucleation theory. However, the ice nucleating abilities of the atmospheric aerosol particles are not well understood, and therefore cause difficulties of the parameterization of immersion freezing. In this study, we investigate the ice nucleating ability of Marigold pollen from the Beijing area by doing drop immersion freezing experiments in the laboratory. Marigold pollen are first mixed with pure water. A population of drops with a volume of 10 mL from the mixture are then put on a PE film in a chamber with a cooling rate of about 0.5 °C min^-1. We find that the median freezing temperature of drops with pollen as ice nuclei is -17 °C. The contact angle parameterization of immersion freezing using the classical nucleation theory is also given in this study. We use the single-θ and the θ-pdf parameterization schemes to explain the data. The results show that the θ-pdf parameterization scheme is better for describing the ice nucleating behavior of the pollen in Beijing.