23 August 2007
A 2005 paper by Dan Murphy (ESRL Chemical Sciences Division) and University of Bielefeld (Germany) colleague T. Koop is in the top 10 most highly cited articles published in the Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society in 2005 and 2006. In fact, it garnered the second spot in the ranking by QJRMS. The paper is a comprehensive review of the physical chemistry parameters related to ice and liquid water, which are ubiquitous components of the atmosphere that are critically related to climate and Earth's radiation balance.
Background: The physical properties of liquid water over ice and supercooled water are important for cirrus cloud formation and growth, as well as for the formation of polar stratospheric clouds that play a key role in polar ozone depletion. A large volume of the atmosphere is colder than 273 degrees Kelvin (0 degress Celsius), the freezing point of water.
Significance: Though many papers have been written on the properties of ice and liquid water, the paper by Murphy and Koop is the first to collect the literally decades of information and assess it in the context of atmospheric implications. Their paper is a valuable review of measurements and theoretical work related to the topic. The high citation rate reflects the uniqueness and usefulness of the authors' efforts. The work contributes to the Climate Forcing Program of NOAA's Climate Goal.
D. M. Murphy and T. Koop, Review of the vapour pressures of ice and supercooled water for atmospheric applications, Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society, doi:10.1256/qj.04.94, 2005.