Abstract
Direct measurements of the rainwater structure of Tropical Storm Felice and Hurricane Debbie are presented. The rainwater distributions generally show the Marshall-Palmer characteristic form, N-N0 exp (-λd), with N0 varying from 105 to 106m4 and λ varying between 10 and 25cm-1, though large deviations from the exponential form were found in Hurricane Debbie. Despite the fact that the data were acquired from aircraft, a Z-R relationship almost identical to that for summertime cumulus in south Florida is indicated.
Variations of the rainwater parameters during radial passes and spacially coherent data from Hurricane Debbie are also presented. The data show a rainband structure that penetrates to high altitudes and is remarkably persistent. The structure suggested agrees with the radar data indicating some statistical validity in the results, and in fact, the data allow a rough calibration of the radar isocontours. Generally, the data show that little of the rainwater resides in the updrafts. This suggests that the downdrafts are caused by water loading and that the seeding potential of the storms was small at the time the samples we taken.
