Open AccessA balloon‐borne instrument to measure total water content in low‐level clouds
Author(s) -
Price Jeremy D,
Jones Tony A,
Shields John
Publication year - 1998
Publication title -
meteorological applications
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 0.672
H-Index - 59
eISSN - 1469-8080
pISSN - 1350-4827
DOI - 10.1017/s135048279800098x
Subject(s) - measure (data warehouse) , remote sensing , environmental science , cloud computing , content (measure theory) , balloon , liquid water content , measuring instrument , meteorology , computer science , physics , database , geology , mathematics , medicine , mathematical analysis , cardiology , operating system , thermodynamics
This paper describes a new instrument designed to measure cloud or fog total water content mounted on a tethered balloon facility. The instrument is an evaporator type, which is inexpensive and relatively easy to construct. The device measures total water content with an uncertainty of 0.3 g kg −1 , and a resolution of 0.03 g kg −1 , at a frequency of 1 Hz. This typically gives a spatial resolution of 5–20 m and allows turbulent statistics to be calculated. Tethered balloons provide an ideal platform for the instrument to study low cloud, allowing very detailed measurement of cloud structure to be made. Some typical data are presented as an illustration. Copyright © 1998 Royal Meteorological Society