Research offers insights on the prevalence of drizzle in marine stratocumulus clouds

Drizzle is light precipitation in droplets smaller than rain drops. Detecting drizzle in its early stages in marine stratocumulus clouds is important for studying how water in these clouds becomes rainfall. These clouds form off the west coasts of large land areas and are important to the Earth's energy balance. Drizzle and rain formation can alter their lifetime, structure, and how much sunlight they reflect to space.