On cloud radar and microwave radiometer measurements of stratus cloud liquid water profiles

We show a method for determining stratus cloud liquid water profiles using a microwave radiometer and cloud radar. This method is independent of the radar calibration and the cloud‐droplet size distribution provided that the sixth moment of the size distribution can be related to the square of the third moment. We have calculated these moments with a wide variety of in situ measurements and show that this is a reasonable assumption. Examples of droplet distributions that meet this requirement are the lognormal and gamma distributions.