The sound of rain underwater is a loud and distinctive signal that can be used to detect and measure rain at sea. Individual raindrops make sound underwater by two distinct mechanisms: the impact of the raindrop onto the ocean surface and sound radiating from any bubbles trapped underwater during the splash. For most raindrops, the sound radiation by bubbles is, by far, the louder sound source. Because the geometry of their splashes regularly traps a bubble of uniform size, small raindrops (0.8-1.2 mm diameter) are unexpectedly loud underwater. These drops are responsible for the remarkably loud "sound of drizzle" heard between 13-25 kHz. Medium raindrops (1.2-2.0 mm diameter) are relatively quiet, while large (2.0-3.5 mm diameter) and very large (> 3.5 mm) raindrops have energetic splashes which can trap larger bubbles. These bubbles radiate sound at frequencies as low as 1 kHz. Because the different raindrop sizes produce sound with distinctive features, the sound field can be "inverted" to measure the raindrop size distribution within the rain. This is a good measure of rainfall rate, or other interesting features of rainfall.

Although there are sometimes man-made or biological noises that are loud and could potentially interfere with the acoustical measurement of rain, these noises are generally intermittent or geographically localized. When rain is present, the sound from rain dominates the underwater sound field. There are two features of rain- and drizzle-generated sound that allow detection of rain at sea. These are the relative level (very loud) and the relatively higher sound levels at higher frequency (over 10 kHz) when compared to wind. By monitoring for these distinctive spectral features, it is possible to detect and then quantify rainfall at sea.

New ARGs are currently being deployed on several of the moorings that form the Tropical Atmosphere Ocean (TAO) deep-ocean mooring array deployed by NOAA in the tropical Pacific Ocean (McPhaden et al. 1998). Data from these ARGs should become available for scientists beginning in the year 2000. By learning to listen to the ocean, we can make important rainfall observations that will help meteorologists, oceanographers and climatologists to better understand the distribution and intensity of this important component of climate.
 

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 Detection and Measurement of Rain at Sea