Fine-Scale Droplet Clustering in Atmospheric Clouds: 3D Radial Distribution Function from Airborne Digital Holography
The extent of droplet clustering in turbulent clouds has remained largely unquantified, and yet is of possible relevance to precipitation formation and radiative transfer. To that end, data gathered by an airborne holographic instrument are used to explore the three-dimensional spatial statistics of cloud droplet positions in homogeneous stratiform boundary-layer clouds. The three-dimensional radial distribution functions g(r) reveal unambiguous evidence of droplet clustering. Three key theoretical predictions are observed: the existence of positive correlations, onset of correlation in the turbulence dissipation range, and monotonic increase of g(r) with decreasing r. This implies that cur…
Light Propagation in Clouds: From Digital Holography to Non-Exponential Extinction
Optical propagation is strongly influenced b y t he n umber concentration, size distribution, thermodynamic phase, and spatial distribution of particles in atmospheric clouds. These properties have been investigated in the field using an airborne digital holographic instrument. A laboratory facility has also been developed, in which optical propagation is being investigated in steady-state turbulent-cloud conditions.
Holographic Observations of Centimeter-Scale Nonuniformities within Marine Stratocumulus Clouds
Abstract Data collected with a holographic instrument [Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC)] on board the High-Performance Instrumented Airborne Platform for Environmental Research Gulfstream-V (HIAPER GV) aircraft from marine stratocumulus clouds during the Cloud System Evolution in the Trades (CSET) field project are examined for spatial uniformity. During one flight leg at 1190 m altitude, 1816 consecutive holograms were taken, which were approximately 40 m apart with individual hologram dimensions of 1.16 cm × 0.68 cm × 12.0 cm and with droplet concentrations of up to 500 cm−3. Unlike earlier studies, minimally intrusive data processing (e.g., bypassing calculation of number concen…