Advances in fog microphysics research in China

Fog microphysical research in China based on field experiments obtained many important results in recent 50 years. With the fast development of China’s economy, urbanization in the last 30 years, special features of fog microphysical structure also appeared, which did not appear in other countries. This article reviews the fog microphysical research around China, and introduces the effect of urbanization on fog microphysical structure and the microphysical processes as well as macroscopic conditions of radiation fog droplet spectral broadening. Urbanization led to an increase in fog droplet number concentration but decreases in fog liquid water content (LWC) and fog droplet size, as well as a decrease in visibility in large cities. Observations show that the radiation fog could be divided into wide-spectrum one, which is all extremely dense fog with the spectral width more than 40 μm, and narrow-spectrum one, most of which is dense fog with the spectral width less than 22 μm, according to droplet spectral distribution. During developing from dense fog to extremely dense fog, the widespectrum radiation fog is characterized by explosive deepening, that is, within a very short time (about 30 min), the droplet concentration increase by about one order of magnitude, droplet spectral broadening across 20 μm, generally up to 30-40 μm, or even 50 μm. As a result, water content increased obviously, visibility decreased to less than 50 m, when dense fog became extremely dense fog.