Skip to main content

Thank you for visiting nature.com. You are using a browser version with limited support for CSS. To obtain the best experience, we recommend you use a more up to date browser (or turn off compatibility mode in Internet Explorer). In the meantime, to ensure continued support, we are displaying the site without styles and JavaScript.

  • Letter
  • Published:

Collisions of Cloud Droplets

Abstract

WHETHER cloud droplets coalesce on impact is a problem of obvious theoretical and practical interest, having bearings on theories of rain formation, methods of fog dispersal, the stability of clouds, etc. A major obstacle in the way of providing an answer to this question is the difficulty of simulating in the laboratory the conditions that obtain naturally in clouds. Nevertheless, in July 1941, I made some experiments in connexion with this subject at the Imperial College with the aid of facilities kindly provided by Prof. (now Sir George) Thomson, and with the help of Dr. J. Mazur, and the results obtained may be of interest to others concerned with the same problem.

This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution

Access options

Buy this article

USD 39.95

Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout

Similar content being viewed by others

Author information

Authors and Affiliations

Authors

Rights and permissions

Reprints and permissions

About this article

Cite this article

SWINBANK, W. Collisions of Cloud Droplets. Nature 159, 849–850 (1947). https://doi.org/10.1038/159849a0

Download citation

  • Issue date:

  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/159849a0

This article is cited by

Search

Quick links

Nature Briefing

Sign up for the Nature Briefing newsletter — what matters in science, free to your inbox daily.

Get the most important science stories of the day, free in your inbox. Sign up for Nature Briefing