Measuring Techniques
There are several ways that can be used to measure the liquid water content of clouds.
One way involves an electrically heated wire. The wire is attached to the power supply and is situated on the outside of the airplane. As it moves through a cloud, water droplets hit the wire and evaporate, reducing the temperature of the wire. The resistance caused by this is measured and is used to determine the power needed to maintain the temperature. The power can be converted to a value for the LWC. (Wallace, 2006).
Another way involves an instrument that uses scattered light from a large number of drops. This value is then converted to a value for the LWC. (Wallace, 2006).
A cloud chamber can also be used to simulate adiabatic ascent in the atmosphere through the decrease of pressure by removing air inside the chamber. A series of equations shown in the section below show how the LWC is obtained in this procedure. (Thompson, 2007).
Read more about this topic: Liquid Water Content
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