Was wondering about how to do rain splashing

there are probably about a million and 1 ways to do this but I was just wondering.

I'm working on a rain sim.

When I was thinking about how to do this I figured it would be 2 particle systems, 1 to emit the rain particles.
another to do the splashing

I right now just have 1 popnet that has the rain coming down hitting the grid and bouncing back up and being split off with a little bit of variance but I want to do something better than that.

So what I was just wondering about some suggestions I could take to achieve a splashing effect.

I think I read about instancing?
I read about using metaballs still not clear on how to do this.
I read that surfacing may be an option

and thats all I read up on so any other suggestions would be good.

Have a look..

http://www.orbolt.com/asset/SideFX::vfx_rain [orbolt.com]

Still working on this.

This is what I got so far, not getting a ripple like I thought.

Any suggestions?