A new airborne polar Nephelometer for the measurements of optical and microphysical cloud properties. Part I: Theoretical design

Abstract. A new optical sensor, the airborne Polar Nephelometer, is described. The sensor is designed to measure the optical and microphysical parameters of clouds containing either water droplets or ice crystals or a mixture of these particles ranging in size from a few micrometers to about 500 µm diameter. The probe measures the scattering phase function of an ensemble of cloud particles intersecting a collimated laser beam near the focal point of a paraboloïdal mirror. The light scattered from polar angles from 3.49° to 169° is reflected onto a circular array of 33 photodiodes. The signal processing electronics and computer storage can provide one measurement of the scattering phase function every 100 ms or every 0.2 ms. The first part of the paper describes the theoretical design of a prototype version of the probe.