Holographic in-situ measurements of the spatial droplet distribution in stratiform clouds

Ground based in-situ measurements on the small-scale structure of low-level stratiform clouds have been performed utilizing the HOlographic Droplet and Aerosol Recording system (HODAR) of the University of Mainz, Germany. 6 holograms recorded during stratus cloud events on the Kleiner Feldberg Taunus Mountain Observatory (Frankfurt, Germany) were reconstructed in the laboratory and analysed by means of an automated data extraction and image processing system. In post-processing, each originally recorded droplet population was subjected to 2 statistical methods: (1) the sub-cell scanning analyses with statistical “Fishing” tests and (2) measurements of inter-droplet distance frequency distributions. Based on these analyses, significant deviations between the measured spatial droplet distributions and theoretical random distributions were found.