Development of a New Videosonde Observation System for In-situ Precipitation Particle Measurements

Suzuki, Kenji; Shimizu, Kensaku; Ohigashi, Tadayasu; Tsuboki, Kazuhisa; Oishi, Satoru; Kawamura, Seiji; Nakagawa, Katsuhiro; Yamaguchi, Kosei; Nakakita, Eiichi

doi:10.2151/sola.2012-001

Cited by 14 publications

(7 citation statements)

References 22 publications

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“…It can capture the particle image in the air without contact, which is a big advantage as it can provide nondestructive images of the ice particles. The videosonde was first developed by Takahashi (1990) and improved by Suzuki et al (2012). Improvements in the quality of the particle images and the development of an image processing technique allowed the quantitative evaluation of the size and shape of the precipitation particles (Suzuki et al 2012).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Videosonde-Observed Graupel in Different Rain Systems during Pre-YMC Project

Suzuki

Nakagawa

Kawano

et al. 2018

SOLA

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Videosonde observations were conducted at the southwestern coastal region of Sumatra Island, Indonesia, as part of a pilot field campaign of the Years of the Maritime Continent project (Pre-YMC), to investigate the role of solid hydrometeor for precipitation processes in clouds. Videosondes were launched into three types of clouds: convective and stratiform clouds, and a thick upper stratiform cloud with shallow convection at lower level. A quantitative evaluation of the graupel shape data obtained from the videosondes showed different graupel formations in different rain systems. For the typical stratiform cloud, almost no graupel was observed. In contrasts, for the thick upper stratiform clouds with shallow convection, large numbers of ice crystals in the upper layer suggested to act as embryos and form a lot of graupel with the riming of the supercooled droplets that was supposed to be provided from the shallow convection. On the other hand, for the convection case, the videosonde observed spherical graupel just above the freezing level. This suggested that frozen drops acting as embryos formed spherical graupel, which were uplifted by the strong updraft in the convective cloud, and were different from the generally irregular-shaped graupel in the thick upper stratiform cloud.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Videosonde-Observed Graupel in Different Rain Systems during Pre-YMC Project

Suzuki

Nakagawa

Kawano

et al. 2018

SOLA

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“…The videosonde that was reduced in size and weight by Suzuki et al (2012) was used in the present study. The videosondes consist of a CCD camera, a strobe, an infrared sensor, and a transmitter.…”

Section: Videosondementioning

confidence: 99%

“…The number density and mass density were calculated for every 500-m layer from the surface. The number density was estimated from the particles larger than 0.5 mm in diameter since the minimum performance of the infrared sensor in the videosonde is to respond completely to a particle that is 0.5 mm or larger in diameter (Suzuki et al 2012(Suzuki et al , 2013. The mass of the particles was estimated from the diameters obtained from the videosonde observations by assuming that the particles are spherical in shape.…”

Section: Microphysical Featuresmentioning

confidence: 99%

Microphysical Structures of Early-Winter Snow Clouds during a Cold Air Outbreak of December 23-25, 2010

Watanabe

Suzuki

Kawano

et al. 2014

SOLA

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A series of videosondes that were continuously launched revealed the microphysical structures of snow clouds during the entire period of an intense cold air outbreak that occurred during December 23−25, 2010. The evolution of the microphysical features of graupel and snowflakes associated with the cold air outbreak were examined. It was found that the precipitation particle distributions in the snow clouds varied as the development of the cold air outbreak progressed. Graupel was the predominant precipitation particle throughout the cold air outbreak, while the number of snowflakes was increasing in the latter half of the period. When the lightning activity was relatively weak, high concentrations of graupel were located at lower level warmer than −10°C. It is suggested that lightning activity is associated with the vertical distribution of graupel.(Citation: Watanabe, R., K. Suzuki, T. Kawano, and S. Sugimoto, 2014: Microphysical structures of early-winter snow clouds during a cold air outbreak of December 23−25, 2010. SOLA, 10, 62−66,

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“…To develop precipitation type classification methods, the direct measurement of precipitation particles is essential. Upper air soundings have been conducted with a special balloon-borne instrument called videosonde (Suzuki et al 2012(Suzuki et al , 2014(Suzuki et al , 2016a(Suzuki et al , 2018Watanabe et al 2014;Takahashi et al 2017). The videosonde is a powerful tool for measuring the vertical profiles of precipitation particles in clouds, but it cannot be continuously operated for a long time and cannot measure particle weights.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%