A compact 94-GHz FM-CW Doppler cloud radar using semiconductor devices for power generation

Continental clouds consisting of small droplets partly reveal systematic discrepancies between the calculated and measured radiative properties that need to be resolved. One possible explanation is the horizontal inhomogeneities of microphysical cloud properties. A tool to characterize these is the radar technique. For clouds dominated by larger droplets, the ability of the millimeter wave radar technique to retrieve multi-dimensional microphysical cloud properties has been proven. Here it is shown that a special design of an airborne millimeter wave radar system is capable to detect clouds dominated by small droplets