Calibration and preliminary tests of the optoelectronic dual channel precipitation gauge

A simple and effective calibration technique for the new optoelectronic dual channel precipitation gauge (ODPG) is developed. The main result of the calibration procedure is minimization of the particle size measurement errors that depend on the optical system aberrations. Laboratory tests are carried out for generation of the calibration parameters, and for confirmation of the first theoretical evaluations performed for the device technical characteristics. The ODPG field tests (measurement of the rain parameters) demonstrate high degree of reliability of the developed design – steady operation of optical and electronic systems after transportation, efficiency of algorithms used for acquisition and processing of measurement data and calculation of the precipitation parameters.