| Abstract: | A low‐cost laser disdrometer (LLD), which is a type of high‐speed line‐image scanner, has been developed and calibrated for raindrops. The disdrometer measures hydrometeor's particle‐size distribution (PSD) and fall velocities, as well as record hydrometeor images. Hydrometeor imaging is advantageous for hydrometeor classification. All hydrometeor types, raindrops, graupels, snowflakes, and ice crystals, can mix with snowfall. Snowfall sensing requires a wide sensing light sheet to capture large‐sized snowflakes. Accordingly, a new LLD equipped with a 35‐mm sensing light sheet has been developed. This paper demonstrates and evaluates the new drisdrometer's snowfall‐evaluation performance. The wide sensing light sheet captures images of large‐sized (14 mm) snowflakes reasonably well, and the PSD and the fall velocities correlate with those measured with the commercially available Parsivel laser disdrometer. © 2016 Institute of Electrical Engineers of Japan. Published by John Wiley & Sons, Inc. |
