Revisiting particle sizing using greyscale optical array probes: evaluation using laboratory experiments and synthetic data

In-situ observations from research aircraft and instrumented ground sites are important contributions to developing our collective understanding of clouds, and are used to inform and validate numerical weather and climate models. Unfortunately, biases in these datasets may be present, which can limit their value. In this paper, we discuss artefacts which may bias data from a widely used family of instrumentation in the field of cloud physics, Optical Array Probes (OAPs). Using laboratory and synthetic datasets, we demonstrate how greyscale analysis can be used to filter data, constraining the sample volume of the OAP, and improving data quality particularly at small sizes where OAP data are considered unreliable. We apply the new methodology to ambient data from two contrasting case studies: one warm cloud and one cirrus cloud. In both cases the new methodology reduces the concentration of small particles (< 60 μm) by approximately an order of magnitude. This significantly improves agreement with a Mie scattering spectrometer for the liquid case and with a holographic imaging probe for the cirrus case. Based on these results, we make specific recommendations to instrument manufacturers, instrument operators, and data processors about the optimal use of greyscale OAP’s. The data from monoscale OAPs is unreliable and should not be used for particle diameters below approximately 100 μm.