摘要 |
In one aspect, 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 (µ, D MVD).
|