Cloud microphysics · Numerical cloud modeling
Inyeob La
Cloud microphysics across observation, simulation, and experiment.
I investigate how aerosols, turbulence, and mixing with surrounding air shape cloud particles and cloud structure through observations, laboratory experiments, and numerical models that track representative particles.
Specially Appointed Assistant Professor Graduate School of Information Science, University of Hyogo · Shima Research Group
Profile
About
My work connects the microphysical life of cloud particles to the larger-scale structure and evolution of clouds.
At the University of Hyogo, I work with Prof. Shin-ichiro Shima on numerical and observational studies of cloud microphysical processes. My research focuses on how aerosols, turbulence, and mixing between clouds and surrounding air affect droplet growth, precipitation, and cloud optical properties.
Research
Core directions
Marine stratocumulus
Observational analysis of how surrounding air mixes into clouds and changes cloud particles from top to bottom.
Particle-based cloud modeling
High-resolution numerical models track representative aerosol and cloud particles to explain droplet formation, growth, and variability.
Laboratory cloud chambers
Numerical simulations of convection and expansion chambers for investigating aerosol–cloud interactions under controlled conditions.
Now
Current focus
From individual particles to cloud systems
I am currently examining how aerosol conditions and turbulent transport influence droplet activation, condensational growth, cloud-top mixing, precipitation processes, and cloud optical properties.
Output
Recent first-author papers
Atmospheric Chemistry and Physics · 26, 5213–5235
Lagrangian particle-based simulation of aerosol-dependent vertical variation of cloud microphysics in a laboratory convection cloud chamber
Computer simulations of a laboratory cloud chamber show how aerosol abundance and vertical air motion shape the height-by-height distribution of cloud droplets.
Journal of Geophysical Research: Atmospheres · 130, e2025JD044582
Cloud-Top Entrainment Instability in Marine Stratocumulus Clouds: Observational Evidence From Collocated Microphysical, Turbulence, and Radiation Measurements
Helicopter observations reveal when mixing at marine cloud tops drives diluted air downward and contributes to cloud thinning.
Quarterly Journal of the Royal Meteorological Society · 150(765), 5037–5056
Relationship between vertical variation of cloud microphysical properties and thickness of the entrainment interfacial layer in Physics of Stratocumulus Top stratocumulus clouds
Aircraft observations show that the depth of the transition layer above marine clouds controls how droplets and mixed air vary below the cloud top.