PRECIPITATION WATER CONTENT METER,.
Abstract
A project to develop a means of measuring only the 'precipitation water content' from an aircraft flying through rain resulted in a new type of meteorological sensor. The instrument is basically an air gap capacitor which utilizes centrifugal force to drive all captured water droplets out between the capacitor plates. Because of the high dielectric constant of water, large changes in capacity are observed as a function of water input rate. The sensor has a response time of less than one second and is self-clearing. In the contemplated airborne application, where only large drops were desired (no cloud droplets), aerodynamic sorting is used to shunt aside all smaller drops from the intake. The aerodynamic filtering would be accomplished by means of a specially shaped wing tip-tank which would house the sensor. The tip-tank shape was empirically arrived at after much testing in a specialized wind-rain tunnel constructed for the purpose. Collection efficiency and prototype sensor calibration data are presented. The basic sensor may also have applications to cloud liquid water content measurement problems and to the measurement of instantaneous rainfall rate. (Author)
Document Details
- Document Type
- Technical Report
- Publication Date
- Jun 01, 1966
- Accession Number
- AD0644122
Entities
People
- Alan M. Nathan
- Leon Bennet
Organizations
- New York University