page_title: Raindrop size distribution
section_title: Definition
hierarchical_section_title: Raindrop size distribution / Definition
caption_attribution_description: Drop Size Distribution/Granulamétrie de pluie
context_page_description: The raindrop size distribution, or granulometry of rain, is the distribution of the number of raindrops according to their diameter. Three processes account for the formation of drops: water vapor condensation, accumulation of small drops on large drops and collisions between sizes. According to the time spent in the cloud, the vertical movement in it and the ambient temperature, the drops that have a very varied history and a distribution of diameters from a few micrometers to a few millimeters.
context_section_description: In general, the drop size distribution is represented as a truncated gamma function for diameter zero to the maximum possible size of rain droplets. The number of drop with diameter  is therefore :
  with ,  and  as constants.
caption: Example of distributions in convective rain in Florida with différent rates of précipitation: logarithmic scale of number (N) versus linear scale of diameters (D)[1]
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