116
Views
0
CrossRef citations to date
0
Altmetric
Original Articles

Raindrop size distribution in warm rain as measured in Hawaii

Pages 392-402 | Received 13 Feb 1967, Published online: 15 Dec 2016
 

Abstract

On the eastern slope of the Island of Hawaii, raindrop size distributions were sampled simultaneously at 5 stations. From the data analyses, it was established that each sequence of data from one station represents the distribution of drops at various development stages. Then the representative data were inspected under the light of the author's previous paper (1965 b) which concerns the classification for 4 processes, (1) coalescence between precipitable drops, (2) mixing of different groups, (3) accretion of cloud water, and (4) sorting of drops. The results show that most of the cases during the project have small values of A and b, where these parameters are defined by the radar reflectivity (Z) equation.

Z = ARb, R = rainfall rate.

This indicates that the mean diameters are smaller but that numbers are greater compared with continental showers. The analyses imply that the initial concentration of precipitable drops is very effective in determining the rainfall rates, especially in orographic rains.