Duel-Plane Optical Disdrometer

Acquiring better drop-size distributions of rainfall will improve our understanding of the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall. In order to fully capture the spatial and temporal variability of rainfall, a robust, calibration free, low-cost instrument that provides an accurate drop-size distribution is required. Therefore, The University of Iowa Lidar Group has developed and built a new duel-plane optical disdrometer that meets these criteria. Two sheets of laser light, vertically spaced by 1 cm are produced by two 670nm laser beams passing through a collecting lens and culminating lens, respectively. The two sheets of laser light then pass through a convex lens located 20 cm from the lasers that focuses the light on a photo detector. A computer reads in and stores the voltages at 10 kHz. The velocity, diameter, shape and drop-size distribution of raindrops are extracted from the voltage measurements. Rainfall data collected in Iowa City, IA tested our disdrometer's robustness and accuracy of providing drop-size distributions. Our distrometer is advantageous because it is simple, low-cost, and requires no calibration.