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Title: A differential emissivity imaging technique for measuring hydrometeor mass and type

Journal Article · · Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online)

The Differential Emissivity Imaging Disdrometer (DEID) is a new evaporation-based optical and thermal instrument designed to measure the mass, size, density and type of individual hydrometeors as well as their bulk properties. Hydrometeor spatial dimensions are measured on a heated metal plate using an infrared camera by exploiting the much higher thermal emissivity of water compared with metal. As a melted hydrometeor evaporates, its mass can be directly related to the loss of heat from the hotplate assuming energy conservation across the hydrometeor. The heat loss required to evaporate a hydrometeor is found to be independent of environmental conditions including ambient wind velocity, moisture level and temperature. The difference in heat loss for snow vs. rain for a given mass offers a method for discriminating precipitation phase. The DEID measures hydrometeors at sampling frequencies of up to 1 Hz with masses and effective diameters greater than 1 µg and 200 µm, respectively, determined by the size of the hotplate and the thermal camera specifications. Measurable snow water equivalent (SWE) precipitation rates range from 0.001 to 200 mm h-1, as validated against a standard weighing bucket. Preliminary field experiment measurements of snow and rain from the winters of 2019 and 2020 provided continuous automated measurements of precipitation rate, snow density and visibility. Measured hydrometeor size distributions agree well with canonical results described in the literature.

Research Organization:
Particle Flux Analytics Inc., Salt Lake City, UT (United States)
Sponsoring Organization:
USDOE Office of Science (SC); National Science Foundation (NSF); Colorado Department of Transportation; USDOE
Grant/Contract Number:
SC0017168; SC-0017168
OSTI ID:
1829174
Alternate ID(s):
OSTI ID: 1830816
Journal Information:
Atmospheric Measurement Techniques (Online), Vol. 14, Issue 11; ISSN 1867-8548
Publisher:
Copernicus Publications, EGUCopyright Statement
Country of Publication:
United States
Language:
English

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