Abstract
It has recently been suggested1–3, based on dual-polarized radar measurements, that in the bright-band region, melting snow exhibits the characteristics of rain drops having very large effective drop diameters. It is postulated that snow flakes falling below the 0 °C isotherm melt slowly with small water droplets first forming on the outer edges of the flakes; as the snow continues to melt water forms on the surface of the flake, thus it takes on the behaviour of a large rain/ice drop; in the final stages of melting the particles start to collapse into smaller drops. Here another technique for inferring rain-drop sizes4 is described which produces results which, being consistent with those above, support the bright-band model.
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Altshuler, E. Large rain drops in the bright band. Nature 288, 464–465 (1980). https://doi.org/10.1038/288464a0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/288464a0
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