2011/06/01 by M. Wilkinson, Michael Wilkinson, Wilkinson, Michael
Materials Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #FOS: Physical sciences #Textile materials and evaluations #physics.ao-ph
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1106.0334
4 pages. This paper has been withdrawn by the author due to numerical error in the calculation of the timescale for Ostwald ripening
openalex publication_date 2011/06/01 · arxiv created 2012/04/17 · arxiv updated 2012/04/18 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
A central problem in cloud physics is understanding the kinetics of the growth of water droplets. It is believed that there exists a 'condensation-coalescence bottleneck' in the growth of intermediate size droplets. Here the Lifshitz-Slezov theory of Ostwald ripening is applied to the kinetics of the growth of rain drops. The analysis shows that kinetic barriers to rain initiation are not significant. It is also shown that Ostwald ripening can greatly enhance the apparent collision efficiency of droplets falling under gravity.