Nature Science

COOL DROPS OF GENIUS, SERIOUSLY.

Dragonfly covered in dew by Ondrej Pakan.

by Ondrej Pakan. Dragonfly covered in dew.

Today we look at the nature, science, and technology of raindrops and dewdrops. We’ve got a new discovery about the shape of raindrops, lights that make raindrops disappear, and some great tips on how to photograph raindrops and dewdrops so they totally rock! Check it out below.

SHAPE MATTERS

Raindrops and teardrops don’t look the same up close, despite what James Blunt and the rest of us might think, as scientists are just discovering.

Raindrops look more like hamburger buns. That’s right…. buns. They are round at the top and flat on the bottom.

This may sound like a trivial observation, and you might wonder why NASA scientists have bothered to investigate this as part of NASA’s Global Precipitation Measurement mission.

It turns out that the relative shapes of the drops correlate with the size, speed, and power of a storm. Shape can be used for “nowcasting,” determining weather patterns that will occur within the next 30 - 60 minutes. Is the storm intensifying or petering out?

A raindrop starts out as a “ball,” due to the surface tension of water. As it gains mass and falls to the earth, pressure from below pushes up against it, flattening the drop’s bottom. If raindrops reach the size of 3/16 of an inch or greater, they look a bit like parachutes, before they break up into smaller drops.

Later this month a new precipitation measuring satellite will be launched from Tanegashima Space Center in Japan as part of a joint American-Japanese project. AXA, plans to study the sizes of raindrops with new advanced radar aboard the GPM Core Observatory.

RAIN RAIN GO AWAY!

Raindrops are beautiful but sometimes it’s better if you don’t see them. Yet, a vehicle’s headlights illuminate raindrops, which distort the light and creates a hazard for drivers.

That’s why Intel and Carnegie Mellon University, led by associate professor Srinivasa Narasimhan of the Robotics Institute, teamed up to develop cool new intelligent headlights that hide raindrops -- keeping them out of your view when you are driving.

A camera behind the projector sees raindrops and a processor predicts their paths. Then the projector blocks out just the part of the grid where the rain is falling. So you will never see the rain.

It sounds like a bit of slight-of-hand trickery, but this clever play could represent a major safety improvement for riders on the storm. Especially considering the fact that almost half of all car accidents occur at night despite fewer drivers on the road, according to the National Highway Safety Transportation Administration. Rain, of course, further reduces visibility.

Dewdrops are precious, not just because they bring a new level of beauty to everything they touch, but because they are so fleeting. That’s why dewdrops are a favorite subject for photographers.

Macrophotography has enabled photographers to capture dewdrops.

Here are some tips for photographing dewdrops:

Use a cable release or remote release to avoid camera shake.
Use a mid-range aperture to push the background out of focus while the dewdrop stays sharp.
Keep an eye on your shutter speed as you don't want a blurry photo. Do try a larger aperture too but if you find it blurs more of the shot then you intended, just change the size.

Make sure your focus is on the drop(s) so you get a nice clear shot of them. You may have to sacrifice foreground sharpness as a blurry drop will just distract the viewer.
To capture an image, such as that of a flower, inside the dew drop, position the flower behind they dewdrop so you can see it in your viewfinder.
Do remember that everything you see is reversed in the dew drop though so if you want to centre the object that's to the left you need to move it more to the right.