Supercooled liquid water content profiling case studies with a new vibrating wire sonde compared to a ground-based microwave radiometer

Abstract

An improved version of the vibrating wire sensor, used to measure supercooled cloud liquid water content, was developed by Anasphere Inc. and tested during early 2012. The sensor works on the principle that supercooled liquid will freeze to the vibrating wire and reduce the frequency at a known rate proportional to the liquid water content as the sensor rises through the cloud attached to a weather balloon and radiosonde. The disposable Anasphere sensor interfaces with an InterMet Systems iMet radiosonde. This updated sensor reduces the weight of the instrument while updating the technology when compared to the preceding balloon-borne sensor that was developed in the 1980's by Hill and Woffinden.Balloon-borne test flights were performed from Boulder, Colorado during February and March of 2012. These flights provided comparisons to integrated liquid water and profiles of liquid water content derived from a collocated multichannel microwave radiometer, built and operated by Radiometrics Corporation. Inter-comparison data such as these are invaluable for calibration, verification and validation of remote-sensing instruments. The data gathered from this sensor are potentially important to detection of icing hazards to aircraft, validation of microphysical output from numerical models, and calibrating remote sensors measuring supercooled liquid water.