Advances in Microphysical features and Measurement Techniques of Raindrops

The size, fall velocity, shape, axis ratio, oscillation, orientation, and their spatial distributions of raindrops are the key parameters for study of rainfall physics, which also have great significance in these fields such as research on the mechanism of soil erosion, calibration of weather radar, classification of present weather, evaluation of rainfall enhancement, and determination of channel in radio communication and navigation systems. This paper reviews the history of measurement technology and method of raindrops’ microphysical features firstly, discusses the status and shortcomings of laboratory wind tunnel experiment, optical disdrometer, and other measurement techniques and theory for the raindrops’ microphysical features, and then the shape, fall velocity, oscillation, and orientation of raindrops are analyzed. Existing disdrometers cannot measure the all the micro-physical characteristics of raindrops, which limit the application of raindrops micro physical characteristics in related area. At last from the point of view of relative area and application, the prospect of the future development trend of raindrops microphysics measurement techniques is concluded.