Simultaneous measurement of cloud microphysical parameters based on digital holographic interferometry

Abstract

Investigation of cloud microphysical is of great significance in deepening the understanding of the radiation energy budget, water cycle process, and precipitation mechanism, and improving the scientificity and effectiveness of artificial precipitation. Especially under the action of turbulence, in addition to shear and inertia, the turbulence in the cloud will accelerate the collision of cloud droplets through vortex superposition. The above process will further complicate the cloud microphysical characters. At present, the methods of measuring cloud microphysical parameters based on light scattering, collision and imaging theories encounter bottlenecks: the inversion process needs to make the assumptions about cloud droplet spectrum and particle characteristics, the impact process will destroy particle characteristics, and the three-dimensional characteristics of cloud particles cannot be obtained. Because of its many advantages, such as fast, real-time, non-destructive, non-invasive, high-resolution, full-field optical measurement, etc., in-line digital holographic interferometry is considered as a new potential tool for the dynamical measurement of cloud microphysical property. In particular, the mutual interference between the particle image and twin image is small under far-field recording conditions. In this paper, the measurement method of the on-line digital holographic interferometry based on interference theory, combining optical information processing, depth of field compression, and gray gradient variance technology of fusion holograms, is investigated. This method, with a <i>z</i>-axis position accuracy of 0.01 mm and system resolution of 2 μm, is employed for simultaneously and finely detecting the cloud droplet spectrum, cloud particle diameter, and number concentration. In the experiment, the liquid droplet with a median diameter of 3.9 μm, produced by the ultrasonic atomizer, is used as an example of the cloud particle. The measurement results are consistent with realistic scenario. By using a high speed charge coupled device or complementary metal oxide semiconductor camera, this method can solve the technical bottleneck of three-dimensional fine characteristics of cloud particle in airborne measurement by using cloud droplet spectrometer. It can provide effective support for the research of liquid water in the cloud, entrainment, condensation, collision, and temporal and spatial evolution laws. In addition, it has reference significance for the study of particle dynamics. Simultaneously, this method provides a feasible solution for the measurement of cloud in land-based and airborne platforms.