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Physics of Precipitation

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Book cover Meteorological Research Reviews

Part of the book series: Meteorological Monographs ((METEOR,volume 3))

Abstract

The physical understanding of precipitation mechanisms has steadily increased during the past years. Since we are dealing here with the whole troposphere as a huge laboratory whose conditions we cannot control, we have to use airplane observations and ground-station networks for the analysis of the atmospheric conditions. In this work, radar has proved to be a tool of invaluable help. Only after a complete analysis of such conditions can we apply our own hypothesis of how nature manages, under a particular case, to form or not to form precipitation. On the background of much experimental and theoretical work we may say that the world-wide significance of two basic processes of the formation of precipitation is now established beyond doubt — the ice crystal or Bergeron-Findeisen mechanism (Bergeron, 1935; Findeisen, 1938) and the coalescence mechanism (Reynolds 1879; Findeisen, 1939; and Langmuir, 1948).

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  1. Signal Corps Engineering Laboratories, USA

    H. K. Weickmann

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Alfred K. Blackadar

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© 1957 American Meteorological Society

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Weickmann, H.K. (1957). Physics of Precipitation. In: Blackadar, A.K. (eds) Meteorological Research Reviews. Meteorological Monographs, vol 3. American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-940033-33-4_1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-940033-33-4_1

  • Publisher Name: American Meteorological Society, Boston, MA

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