Characterization Of The Distribution Of Cloud Spectra For Thunderstorms In The Western Mediterranean Area

Within the frame of the EURICE Program: (EUropean Research on aircraft Ice Certification) one of the planned objectives was the description of growth processes of supercooled drops inside storm cells. A C-212 aircraft with cloud physics instruments on board was used for measuring cloud microphysics, and a meteorological C-band radar with the TITAN software was also installed for data acquisition and processing. The study zone was a circular area of about 160 km in radius, centering on the city of Zaragoza.

The flights were all carried out following trajectories that tried to enter the most vigorous cloud turret rising on the flank of warm-based storms. The use of a OAP 2D-C probe providing 30 size channels led us to distinguish between liquid drops, ice, and graupel, and it also allowed us to obtain information about the distributions. The flights were all carried out in cloud areas with a temperature between -3 y -6ºC.

This paper shows that the distributions were exponential in most cases. It also includes comments on the SLD and the formation of graupel and ice crystals.