Particle polarization lidar for precipitation particle classification

This study proposes a particle polarization lidar that distinguishes raindrops and snowflakes based on individual precipitation particles' polarization information. As precipitation particles are several millimeters in size, the lidar signal from individual precipitation particles can be detected with a single laser pulse. Therefore, particle polarization lidar observation can obtain the range distribution of raindrops and snowflakes from the polarization information of individual precipitation particles. This paper reports the principle of the particle polarization lidar and vertical distributions of raindrops and snowflakes obtained by the lidar observations.