Raindrop Spectrometer: Functions, Applications and Superiorities over Traditional Devices

The raindrop spectrometer is a high-performance meteorological sensor. Based on the principle of the attenuation of laser by precipitation particles, it can accurately measure parameters of precipitation particles (including liquid, solid and mixed states), such as diameter, velocity, and distribution density. At the same time, it can also measure rainfall intensity, cumulative rainfall, identify weather phenomena, and determine visibility, etc. It integrates multiple functions such as raindrop spectrum analysis, high-precision all-weather rainfall measurement, weather phenomenon identification, and visibility monitoring.

The raindrop spectrometer has a wide range of applications in multiple fields, such as the automatic monitoring of weather phenomena, the evaluation of the effect of artificial rainfall enhancement, the accurate measurement of precipitation, the early warning of road conditions and airport weather, the early warning of floods, and the calibration of rain-measuring radars. It can provide the particle size distribution data of ground raindrops and export the ground Z/R relationship, and this function is very important for adjusting the readings of rain-measuring radars. When the raindrop spectrometer is used in combination with the rain-measuring radar, the remote sensing accuracy of the rain-measuring radar can be significantly improved.

Studies have shown that when the rainfall radar and the laser raindrop spectrometer are operating normally, compared with traditional remote sensing rainfall stations, this system has the following advantages:

It has a higher resolution and a higher accuracy in monitoring the areal rainfall, effectively solving the measurement blind area problem that occurs in traditional remote sensing rainfall stations in the case of local rainfall.

It has a wider monitoring range and can make up for the lack of rainfall data in some areas due to insufficient coverage of public network signals such as mobile and telecommunications networks.

The rainfall amount monitored by the rainfall radar and the laser raindrop spectrometer is less affected by the wind, overcoming the defect that the rainfall data of traditional remote sensing rainfall stations is on the low side in windy weather, effectively improving the accuracy of rainfall measurement. It has more advantages in monitoring rainfall under severe weather conditions such as typhoon and rainstorm.