TURBULENT MOISTURE MEASUREMENTS ABOARD INSTRUMENTED AIRCRAFT WITH A CAPACITIVE SENSOR

The authors show how a capacitive device measuring moisture can be use d aboard instrumented atmospheric aircraft as an alternate sensor for turbulence measurement. Using a calibrated Lyman-alpha sensor as a ref erence, the time response of the capacitive device can be improved in such a way that turbulent latent heat flux and moisture variance can b e calculated with a good level of accuracy. This improvement is done b y correction of the amplitude as well of the phase of the signal. Thes e corrections are determined from in-flight measurements; therefore, t hey take into account the time response of the sensor itself, as well as its airborne installation.