The present disclosure relates to a method for the detection, characterization and assessment of the quality of a spray which is produced by atomizing liquids with nozzles of different designs and constructional forms. The spray may have an application-specific droplet size distribution ranging from fine to very coarse droplets which move at different speeds. A radar signal is directed into and reflected by the spray. The reflected radar signal is subject to a Doppler shift caused by the movement of the droplets in the spray. The transmitted and received radar signals are mixed to create a low-frequency Doppler oscillation signal which is sampled at a predetermined rate with an analog-digital converter, the output of which is stored in a data array and transformed from the time domain into the frequency domain for further processing.