JPH02300690A - Rainfall and snowfall measuring instrument - Google Patents

Abstract

PURPOSE:To decrease the erroneous decision by the influence of noise and to simplify circuit constitution by adding the received output of a vertical polari zation component and the received output of a horizontal polarization component and dividing the received output of the horizontal polarization component by the sum thereof. CONSTITUTION:A light beam polarized to the prescribed plane of polarization is projected into the air and the reflected light reflected by rain drops and snow pieces is separated to the vertical polarization component and the horizontal polarization component. The output V of a vertical signal receiver 12 and the output H of a horizontal signal receiver 13 are inputted to an adder 15 and a divider 16 and y=H/(V+H) is computed. The output of the divider 16 is compared with a reference voltage by comparators 17, 18. For examples, the voltages corresponding to y=0.2 and y=0.3 are set as the reference voltage. Snow is decided in the case of y>0.3 and rain is decided in the case of y<0.2. Sleet is decided in the case of 0.3>=y>=0.2.

Description

[Detailed Description of the Invention] [Industrial Application Field] The present invention relates to a weather sensor device that detects rainfall or snowfall at a desired spatial location and measures the amount of rain or snowfall, and is useful not only for determining rain or snow. This invention relates to a rainfall and snowfall measurement device that determines even snow quality.

[Prior Art] Fig. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, and Fig. 1 is similar to an invention separately filed by the applicant (hereinafter referred to as the separately filed invention), and is not applicable to the present invention. Since the invention is based on this separately filed invention as a prior art, the separately filed invention will be explained as a conventional device using FIG.

In Figure 1, (1) is the electric circuit for the floodlight, (2) is the light source, (3) is the lens for the floodlight, (4) is the polarizer, and (5) is the light source.
is the projected light beam, (6) is the reflecting object, (7) is the reflected light, (8) is the receiver beam, (9) is the polarization separator,
(10) is a vertical photodetector, (11) is a horizontal photodetector, (
12) is the vertical reception image, (13) is the horizontal receiver, (14)
is a signal processing section, and (8) to (13) constitute a light receiver.

A polarized light beam (5) is projected onto a reflective object (6
) is received by a light receiver, separated into a vertically polarized light component and a horizontally polarized light component by a polarization separator (9), and the vertically polarized light component is converted into an electrical signal by a vertical light receiving element (10). , the horizontally polarized light component is converted into an electrical signal by a horizontal light receiving element (1).

The outputs of the vertical light receiving element (10) and the horizontal light receiving element (11) are transmitted to the vertical receiver (12) and horizontal receiver (13), respectively.
The signal is amplified and input to the signal processing section (14).

The signal processing section (4) processes the output of the vertical receiver (12) and the output of the horizontal receiver (13) to determine the nature of the reflecting object.

That is, the output of the vertical receiver (12) is V, and the output of the horizontal receiver (1
When the output of 3) is H, the signal processing unit (14) calculates x = H/V, and the property of the reflecting object is determined based on the value of X.

For example, the output H of the horizontal receiver (13) or the output H of the vertical receiver (12)
) is sufficiently small compared to the output V of the reflective object (6
) means that there is no scattering of the plane of polarization, and therefore it can be determined that the reflecting object (6) is not snow.

[Problem to be Solved by the Invention] The conventional rainfall and snowfall measuring device as described above is configured as described above, so that it is difficult to detect external light other than the reflected light (7) with respect to the projected light beam (6). The light passes through the light receiving element (10), (
11), or the light receiving elements (,10), (l
), receiver (12).

A problem remains when the noise generated in (13) is mixed.

That is, even if there is reflection from the rain, if the amount of rain is small and the signal H is small, if the noise received by the horizontal receiver (13) is large, it will be mistakenly determined to be snow. Furthermore, depending on the situation, there are cases where the value of ■ is small and the value of X is greater than 1, which poses problems such as difficulty in configuring an analog calculation circuit for calculating H/V.

The present invention was made in order to solve the above-mentioned problems with conventional devices, and its purpose is to provide a rainfall and snowfall measuring device that reduces false judgments due to the influence of noise and has a simple arithmetic circuit configuration. There is.

[Means for Solving the Problems] The rainfall and snowfall measuring device according to the present invention determines the property of a reflecting object not by x = H/V but by y = 1 (/(V 1 - ()
The decision was made based on the following.

[Operation] In this invention, the properties of the reflective object are expressed as x = I(/
Since the decision was made based on y = H/ (V + 1-1) instead of V, it is possible to obtain a detected value that is less affected by noise, and it is also possible to perform arithmetic processing such that the detected value exceeds 1. There will be no need.

[Examples] Examples of the present invention will be described below with reference to the drawings. 1st
The figure does not show one embodiment of the present invention, but is a block diagram, and since the structure is the same as the conventional structure except for the signal processing section (14) in the figure, repeated explanation will be omitted here.

FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing an example of the configuration of the signal processing section (14) according to the present invention. In the figure, the same symbols as in FIG. 1 indicate the same parts, (15) is an adder, and (16) is a divider. ,
(17), (1, 8) are comparators, (1'9)'
, (20') are inverters, (21) are anchors, and VR, Vl, and V2 each represent reference voltages.

FIG. 3 is a diagram for explaining the signal processing of the present invention, where the output of the vertical receiver (12) is represented by ■, the output of the horizontal receiver (13) is represented by H, the horizontal axis is x = H/V, and the vertical axis is The axis is y=H/
(Represents V++(). y is always less than or equal to 1, and V-0(
When x=oo), y=1. When H-V (x=1), y=
0.5, when H=O (x=O), y=o.

Since the output of the divider (16) represents the value of y as an analog voltage value, for example, the reference voltage ■1 corresponds to y=0.3, and the reference voltage V2 corresponds to y-02. Suppose we set the voltage.

6-reflected light (7) or if it is reflected light from snow, y-0,5
However, considering the influence of noise, if y > 03, it can be determined that it is snow, and if the reflected light (7) is from rain, it will be y-o, but considering the influence of noise, Also consider y<0
．． ``If it is 2, it can be determined that it is raining.Also, if it is 0 3
In the case of ≧y≧0.2, it can be determined that it is a miso.

That is, by setting the reference voltages Vl and V2 as described above, the output of the comparator (17) is
The output of 0) can be determined as rain, and the output of Antogame 1 to (21) can be determined as sleet.

Further, although not shown in FIG. 2, the output of the adder (15) can be detected, and if this output is less than a predetermined value, it can be determined that neither rain nor snow is present.

Note that the above-mentioned reference voltages V], , V2 are determined and adjusted based on actual measurement values.

[Effects of the Invention] As explained above, the present invention has the effect of simplifying the configuration of the arithmetic circuit, reducing erroneous judgments due to the influence of noise, and accurately determining what the reflecting object is. be.

[Brief explanation of drawings]

FIG. 1 is a block diagram showing an embodiment of the present invention, FIG. 2 is a block diagram showing the structure of the signal processing section of FIG. 1, and FIG. 3 is a diagram explaining signal processing of the present invention. (1)...Electric circuit for floodlight, (2)...Light source, (
3) ... Lens for floodlight, (4) ... Polarizer, (5
)...Light beam, (6)...Reflecting object, (7)...
・Reflected light, 8)...Receiver lens, (9)...
Polarization separator, (10)...Vertical light receiving element, (11)...
・・Horizontal light receiving element, (12) ・・Vertical receiver, (1,300
)...Horizontal receiver, (14)...Signal processing section, (15
)... Adder, (16)... - Divider, (17). (18)...Comparators, (19), (20) respectively
・・Inverter, (21) ・・Anto-game
Go to 1. Note that the same reference numerals in each figure indicate the same or corresponding parts.

Claims (1)

[Claims] Projecting a light beam polarized to a predetermined polarization wavefront into the air,
This light beam receives reflected light reflected by a reflective object such as raindrops or snowflakes present in the light beam, and the received reflected light is a vertically polarized light component, and this vertically polarized light has a polarization direction of 90°.
The vertically polarized light component is detected by a vertical light receiving element, the horizontal polarized light component is detected by a horizontal light receiving element, and the outputs of the vertical light receiving element and the horizontal light receiving element are input to the reflective object. In a rainfall and snowfall measurement device that performs signal processing to determine the properties of an adder for adding the outputs of the receivers; a divider for dividing the output of said horizontal receiver by the output of said adder; and comparing the output of said divider with each of said reference voltages of one or more reference voltages. A rainfall/snowfall measurement device comprising: each comparator.