Patent ID: 7643941

Claim:
A system for determining a measure of liquid water droplet size based on sensor cooling by cloud water and stored sensor power ratio and droplet size data, said system comprising: first and second temperature controlled co-located self heated sensors, the cooling of said sensors being substantially independent of ice water; a self heated compensation sensor oriented to be substantially independent of cloud water cooling; a variable power source coupled to each of the first and second sensors for keeping each sensor at a predetermined temperature and each variable power source having an output power; a variable power source coupled to the compensation sensor for keeping the sensor at a predetermined temperature and having an output power; and a control unit for: correcting a measured power to each of the first and second sensors to reflect only heat loss due to cloud water by subtracting from the measured power to each of the first and second sensors adjusted compensation sensor measured values; and forming a ratio of corrected power of each of the first and second sensors to identify a liquid water droplet size based on the stored sensor power ratio and droplet size data.