Full Text:
Watching clouds go by, swirls of white puff up and melt away. The changes mirror mixing within the clouds as drier air mingles with water-saturated air. Researchers are now looking at the smallest part of clouds: droplets. To understand groups of droplets, the researchers flew airplanes through fluffy cumulus clouds in Wyoming and Colorado.
Aboard the plane, the team took detailed 3-D images with an instrument called the Holographic Detector for Clouds (HOLODEC—after the "Star Trek" holodeck). With HOLODEC, atmospheric scientists can investigate clouds at a plane's wingtip.Image credit: NCAR
