MEASURING DEVICE FOR WATER CONTENT OF SNOW

PROBLEM TO BE SOLVED: To measure the water content of snow just precipitating. SOLUTION: Light is emitted from a light source 11 (incl. near infrared rays) to an optical path and a plurality of optical filters (having different wavelength range) are exposed one by one so that the light is separated spectrally and the obtained beams of light are projected to snow grains precipitating through a filter mechanism 13 which is rotated by a motor 14. Each beam of light having passed through a snow grain 10 is reflected by a reflection mirror 12 and is cast again onto the snow grain 10, and after passing through the grain 10, the beam is again cast to the snow grain 10 by another reflection mirror 15. The beam of light having passed through the snow grain 10 is received by a light receiving element 16 and converted photo-electrically in accordance with the photo-absorption, and the obtained electric signal is used as a sensing signal for determining the water content of the snow.