Turbulent Moisture Measurements aboard Instrumented Aircraft with a Capacitive Sensor

Abstract

The authors show how a capacitive device measuring moisture can be used aboard instrumented atmospheric aircraft as an alternate sensor for turbulence measurement. Using a calibrated Lyman-α sensor as a reference, the time response of the capacitive device can be improved in such a way that turbulent latent heat flux and moisture variance can be calculated with a good level of accuracy. This improvement is done by correction of the amplitude as well of the phase of the signal. These corrections are determined from in-flight measurements therefore, they take into account the time response of the sensor itself, as well as its airborne installation.