Abstract:
Methods of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud are described herein. In some embodiments, a method of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud comprises sampling a depth of the cloud with a beam of electromagnetic radiation, measuring a scattering signal of the electromagnetic radiation returned from the cloud over a range of field of view angles to provide a measured scattering curve [ p total (¸)], removing a portion of the measured scattering curve, replacing the removed portion with an extrapolation of the remaining measured scattering curve to provide an estimated scattering curve, and determining a first estimate droplet size distribution [ n (1) (D)] from the estimated scattering curve.
Abstract:
Methods of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud are described herein. In some embodiments, a method of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud comprises sampling a depth of a cloud with a beam of electromagnetic radiation, measuring echo intensities of the electromagnetic radiation returned from the cloud with a detector, determining a measured optical extinction coefficient from the measured echo intensities, determining a measured backscatter coefficient from the measured echo intensities, determining a lidar ratio from the measured optical extinction coefficient and the measured backscatter coefficient, determining from the lidar ratio a value pair comprising a shape parameter (µ) and median volume diameter (D MVD ) of the water droplets, and determining a size distribution of the water droplets using the value pair (p, D MVD ).
Abstract:
Methods of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud are described herein. In some embodiments, a method of determining a size distribution of water droplets in a cloud comprises sampling a depth of the cloud with a beam of electromagnetic radiation, measuring a scattering signal of the electromagnetic radiation returned from the cloud over a range of field of view angles to provide a measured scattering curve [ p total (θ)], removing a portion of the measured scattering curve, replacing the removed portion with an extrapolation of the remaining measured scattering curve to provide an estimated scattering curve, and determining a first estimate droplet size distribution [ n (1) (D)] from the estimated scattering curve.