Cloud Particles
Where your research on clouds and precipitation begins
Studying the microphysics of individual particles and droplets informs researchers’ efforts to define the mechanics of cloud formation and growth. Understanding the properties and behavior of cloud particles provides critical insights for cloud and precipitation formation, as well as how cloud particles play a role in maintaining the earth’s energy equilibrium. Knowing how these particles impact the formation of ice crystals also provides critical input for icing certifications. The Droplet portfolio of cloud particle instruments provide:
Measurement at the formation stage through collision and coalescence to the point at which droplets form and fall as precipitation
Particle images used for determination of phase and shape
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Weather modification research
Evaluating whether cloud seeding can be effective within the existing environment by investigating background interactions between aerosols and clouds.
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Cloud physics research
Understanding cloud, precipitation, and ice crystal formation, and the aerosols that influence them.
Discover more“It is expected that changes in the concentrations of either cloud condensation nuclei or ice nuclei can affect the drop size distribution and even the cloud phase, thereby changing cloud radiative properties.”
-S. Lance et al., Atmospheric Measurement Techniques READ ARTICLEFeatured Product
CCP Cloud Combination Probe
This multipurpose particle spectrometer provides aerosol particle and cloud hydrometeor size distributions from 2 µm to 50 µm, precipitation size distributions from 25 µm to 1550 µm, and liquid water content from 0.05 g/m3 to 3 g/m3.
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Water droplet calibration of the Cloud Droplet Probe (CDP) and in-flight performance in liquid, ice and mixed-phase clouds during ARCPAC
Laboratory calibrations of the Cloud Droplet Probe (CDP) sample area and droplet sizing are performed using water droplets of known size, generated at a known rate.
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The Structure of Turbulence and mixed-phase Cloud Microphysics in a Highly Supercooled Altocumulus Cloud
High resolution in situ measurements support previous remotely-sensed observations from both ground based and space borne instruments, and could be used to evaluate numerical model simulations of altocumulus clouds at all scales from eddy resolving to climate.
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Aircraft measurements of the impacts of pollution aerosols on clouds and precipitation over the Sierra Nevada
The campaign consisted of in situ aircraft measurements of the polluting aerosols, the composition of the clouds ingesting them, and the way the precipitation-forming processes are affected.
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