RAIN RATE INSTRUMENT FOR DEPLOYMENT AT SEA

EFFECTIVE PREDICTION OF GLOBAL PHENOMENA REQUIRES DETAILED KNOWLEDGE OF TEMPERATURES, RAINFALL RATES, AND PARTICLE SIZEDISTRIBUTIONS. IN PARTICULAR, KNOWLEDGE OF TROPICAL RAINFALL RATES IS IMPORTANT FOR UNDERSTANDING THE MAGNITUTE OF THE EFFECT OF TROPICAL LATENT HEATING ON GLOBAL ATMOSPHERIC CIRCULATION. SATELLITE MEASUREMENTS OF TROPICALPRECIPITATION PATTERNS HAVE BEEN PROPOSED USING SENSITIVE, SOPHISTICATED INFRARED AND MICROWAVE SYSTEMS. SOME OF THESEMEASUREMENTS MUST BE MADE AT SEA, WHERE SATELLITE INSTRUMENTATION IS MOST ACCURATE. INSTRUMENTS TO PERFORM THESE MEASUREMENTS MUST BE FLOWN ALOFT IN ORDER TO MINIMIZE SHIP INTERFERENCE EFFECTS, SEA SPRAY CONTAMINATION OF DATA, ETC. MEASUREMENTS ARE REQUIRED FOR PARTICLES RANGING IN SIZE FROM MICRONS TO MILLIMETERS. NO SINGLE DEVICE WHICH CAN BE ROUTINELY OPERATED ALOFT AND CAN HANDLE THIS BROAD SIZE RANGE IS PRESENTLY COMMERCIALLY AVAILABLE. MONITORING THE VAST RANGE OF PARTICLE SIZES WOULD BE ACCOMPLISHED THROUGH THE USE OF MULTIPLE INSTRUMENTS, SUCH THAT THE MERGING OF DATA FROM THE INSTRUMENTS IS STATISTICALLY TRACTIBLE. THIS RESEARCH WILL INVESTIGATE AN OPTICAL SIZING TECHNIQUE, FIBER OPTICS DATA TRANSFER TECHNOLOGY AND DATA REDUCTION ALGORITHMS WHICH CAN BE COMBINED INTO A HIGHLY PORTABLE INSTRUMENT FOR MEASURING A BROAD PARTICLE SIZE SPECTRUM AND RAINFALL RATES WHILE CARRIED ALOFT BY A REMOTE TETHERED VEHICLE, RTV.