Laser scattering measurements of droplet growth in binary mixtures. I. H2O and air

Abstract

Droplet growth rates in a Wilson cloud chamber were measured in an air‐H₂O medium. Growth rates were accurately determined in the size range 0.45–10 μm by detection of oscillations in the intensity of polarized light scattered at 30° from a $\mathrm{He–Ne}$ laser source. Pressure and initial temperature were measured in the chamber for use in the computation of three droplet growth theories for comparison to experiment. Experiments were conducted in supersaturations ranging from 1.49 to 3.45.