Design, Construction and Evaluation of the CSU Optical Fog Detector

摘要

The goal of this project was to develop an inexpensive cloud/fog detector that could be used to automate sampling equipment at remote (unmanned) cloud/fog research sites. A secondary objective was to test the ability of this sensor to measure/track trends in fog/cloud liquid water content (LWC). This characteristic is important because LWC is a significant indicator of a cloud's ability to process aerosols and gases and changes in LWC often correspond to changes in fog/cloud solute concentration. The following actions were taken to help realize these objectives. An evaluation of the use of commercially available optical components for fog detection has been performed. The research reinforced the need to have an inexpensive cloud/fog detector that could be used to automate sampling equipment at remote (unmanned) cloud/fog research sites. No such instrument is currently available commercially.