MEASUREMENTS OF CLOUD DROP-SIZE DISTRIBUTIONS

Abstract

Through the analysis of infrared transmittance of a natural cloud, its drop-size distribution can be inferred. This technique has been used to measure and analyze ten cloud situations on Mount Washington. These clouds show drop-size distributions that are bimodal in character. In all the distributions, a large number of small droplets is inferred. To test the synthesized distributions in another region of the spectrum, the visual range was computed. This determination of the visual range is in agreement with the observed visibilities.