Diffusional growth of cloud particles: existence and uniqueness of solutions

Diffusional growth of cloud particles is commonly described by a coupled system of parabolic equations and ordinary differential equations. The Dirichlet boundary condition for the parabolic equation is obtained from the solution of the ordinary differential equations, but this solution itself depends on the solution of the parabolic equations. We first present the governing equations describing diffusional growth of cloud particles. In a second step, we consider a simplified model problem, motivated by the diffusional growth equations. The main difference between the simplified model problem and the diffusional growth equations consists in neglecting the dependence of the domain for the parabolic equations on the solution. For the model problem, we show unique solvability using a fixed point method. Finally, we discuss application of the main result for the model problem to the diffusional growth equations and illustrate these equations with the help of a numerical solution.