Retrieval of liquid water distribution in convective clouds using microwave computerized tomography

A new method of retrieving liquid water content (LWC) fields in convective clouds is proposed. It is based on microwave radiometric sounding of clouds using computerized tomography principles. The fundamentals of the method are described; a possible scheme of cloud sounding from an aircraft is proposed. The potentialities of the method are assessed, for which purpose the necessary numerical experiments have been performed. In the mathematical sense, the method proposed leads to the solution of an inverse problem. For its solution, a modified iterative method based on algebraic retrieval algorithms has been used. The results of the numerical experiments are presented. The convergence of the iterative process is investigated, and the effect of noise in the initial radiometric data, the number of scanning positions and sounding directions on the accuracy of the retrieval of the method proposed is demonstrated