Holographic measurements of inhomogeneous cloud mixing at the centimeter scale

Abstract

Cloud mixing and droplet evolution When clouds mix with drier air because of atmospheric turbulence, some of the cloud droplets evaporate. Beals et al. developed an airborne holographic imaging system to look at changes in the spatial structure and sizes of these droplets (see the Perspective by Bodenschatz). Turbulent mixing of clouds with clear air caused dramatic fluctuations in the number density of water droplets but left their mean diameter essentially unchanged. This finding should help models better represent these hard-to-parameterize cloud processes. Science , this issue p. 87 ; see also p. 40