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A balloon-borne instrument to measure total water content in low-level clouds

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2001

Jeremy D Price ,
Tony A Jones  and
John Shields
Jeremy D Price
Affiliation:
Meteorological Office Research Unit, Cardington, Shortstown, Bedfordshire, MK42 0TH, UK
Tony A Jones
Affiliation:
Meteorological Office Research Unit, Cardington, Shortstown, Bedfordshire, MK42 0TH, UK
John Shields
Affiliation:
Meteorological Office Research Unit, Cardington, Shortstown, Bedfordshire, MK42 0TH, UK
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Abstract

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.

Type
Research Article
Information
Meteorological Applications , Volume 5 , Issue 4 , December 1998 , pp. 351 - 357
Copyright
© 1998 Meteorological Society

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