MICROWAVE-ABSORPTION FOR WATER PLUME DENSITY-MEASUREMENTS

We describe an experimental method to measure the water density of a p lume created from a shallow underwater explosion. Our approach is base d on the attenuation characteristics of a microwave signal propagated through the plume. A unique correlation exists between the amount of a ttenuation and macroscopic quantities including the volume fraction of water in air. In this article, both the theory required for data anal ysis and the experimental arrangement used for measuring the highly at tenuated microwave signal are discussed. (C) 1997 American Institute o f Physics.