Statistical distribution of drop size and the occurrence of dominant drop sizes in raina

Publisher Website
Google Scholar
Abstract
In accordance with a model of a thunderstorm developed by the author [Horton, publication pending], the ascending air current in a convective storm separates raindrops formed in the hail and snow stages into two components. The larger drops fall directly from the ascending air current, while the smaller drops are carried upward into the outflow layer and precipitated as peripheral rain.In this paper various series of observations of raindrop size distribution are analyzed and it is found that the observed characteristics of statistical distribution of drop sizes in different parts of the storm and for rain, sleet, and hail, are in agreement with the results which follow from the operation of the thunderstorm model described.Defant [1005] suggested that most raindrops result from the union of drops of a given initial size, so that the drop volumes are approximately integral multiples of this size. It is shown that there is a tendency toward the occurrence of dominant drop sizes which are roughly multiples of a given initial size. This apparently results from the lateral coalescence of drops of the same size as they fall at the same speed.

This publication has 5 references indexed in Scilit: