liquid water path

liquid water path

A measure of the weight of the liquid water droplets in the atmosphere above a unit surface area on the earth, given in units of kg m^-2, for example.

The liquid water path may be defined as

where 

ρ_air is the density of the (wet) air,

 r_L is the liquid water mixing ratio, 

and the integral is from the bottom to the top of the column.