There’s no inherent way to know exactly what client a validator is running. Researchers use other metrics to make deductions on which client a validator is most likely operating. The problem is they cannot distinguish with 100% certainty which client a validator is running.
Miga Labs uses a crawler to count beacon nodes and their self-reported identity. However, this means that validators sharing a node are counted only once and nodes with fewer validators have a greater influence on the estimate. (Miga Labs )
Another method developed by Sigma Prime’s Michael Sproul is to analyze each client’s block proposal style as described in this tweet thread.