2005 Volume 83 Issue 3 Pages 439-448
The collection efficiency of a hydrometeor videosonde (HYVIS) for dry snow particles is re-evaluated. This is estimated from comparisons with simultaneous aircraft data taken from a warm frontal cloud. The observed cloud is relatively uniform below an altitude of 5.5 km, where the standard deviation of ice particle concentrations is less than 40%. Comparing both size spectra measured with the balloonborne HYVIS and the airborne two-dimensional optical array probe within comparable size ranges (300 to 1500 μm) reveals that the collection efliciency of the HYVIS for dry snow particles is approximately 0.5, with an uncertainty of 50%, assuming that the airborne probe provides reference concentrations in these size ranges.