Collaborative Research: The Meteorological Variability of the Two Dimensional/Temporal Structures of Drop Size Distributions and Rain

该奖项为研究人员提供资金，以研究雨滴聚集的主题。正如在自然界中可以看到的那样，雨并不是以相同的间距落下的。相反，雨滴往往会聚集或聚集在一起。这可能会使用于测量降雨量的工具的解释变得更加复杂，例如简单的雨量计或先进的天气雷达。在这项研究中，来自两个机构的研究人员将扩大一个测量地点，其中包括大量的圆盘测量仪，这些仪器可以在雨滴落下时提供有关它们的图像和信息。额外的数据将帮助研究人员回答各种问题，这些问题最终与雷达数据的解释和降雨对土壤侵蚀的影响有关。本科生将直接参与数据的收集和分析，为下一代科学家提供机会。研究小组将继续并扩大他们的工作，测量降雨的小尺度变异性。在他们之前的研究拨款中，研究人员在一小块100米x 100米的区域内设置了一组光学视盘仪和一台视频视盘仪。该奖项将增加第二个视频视盘仪和一种较新类型的光学视盘仪，以便收集数据，以回答对原始数据的调查提出的问题。具体地说，研究计划是：(1)扩大数据库，以便在更广泛的各种气象条件下获得更好和更完整的观测集合；(2)提高某些仪器的时间分辨率，以减少平流平滑，特别是更详细地研究空间对相关函数；(3)进一步表征当前100米以外更多降雨事件的空间相关函数；(4)利用尚未探索的2DVD数据进行厘米尺度的研究，特别是与雷达布拉格散射相关的尺度，(5)扩展区域大小对液滴尺寸分布的影响及其综合参数的研究，以纳入不同气象条件下的更多数据集；(6)专注于计算不同气象环境和不同时间分辨率下的二维空间相关性，以期开发实用的参数表达式；(7)结合两台仪器的2DVD观测，进行类似于历史上获奖的光子工作的独特的同步研究。

This award provides funding for researchers to study the topic of raindrop clustering. As can be seen in nature, rain does not fall with equal spacing between the individual drops. Rather, the raindrops tend to cluster or bunch. This can make the interpretation of tools used to measure rainfall, such as simple rain gauges or advanced weather radar, more complicated. In this study, researchers from two institutions will expand a measuring site that includes a significant number of disdrometers, which are instruments that can provide images and information about individual raindrops as they fall. The additional data will help the researchers answer a variety of questions which are ultimately relevant to the interpretation of data from radar and the effect of rain on soil erosion. Undergraduate students would be directly involved in the collection and analysis of the data, providing opportunities for the next generation of scientists. The research team will continue and expand upon their work making measurements of small scale variability in rainfall. In their prior research grant, the researchers set up an array of optical disdrometers and a video disdrometer within a small 100m x 100m area. This award will add a second video disdrometer and a newer type of optical disdrometer in order to collect data that would answer questions raised by the investigation of the original data. Specifically, the research plan is to: (1) expand the library of data to obtain better and more complete sets of observations in a wider variety of meteorological conditions, (2) achieve higher temporal resolution of some instruments to reduce advection smoothing, particularly for more detailed studies of the spatial pair correlation function, (3) characterize further the spatial correlation function for many more rain events beyond the current 100m, (4) focus on centimeter scale studies using 2DVD data yet to be explored with particular regard to scales relevant to radar Bragg scatter, (5) expand the study of the effect of domain size on drop size distribution and their integrated parameters to include more data sets under different meteorological conditions, (6) focus on calculating 2D spatial correlation in different meteorological settings and different temporal resolutions with the aim of developing useful parametric expressions for applications, and (7) combine 2DVD observations from two instruments for unique simultaneity studies similar to historic and prize winning photon work.