[1] During the Lindenberg Aerosol Characterization Experiment (LACE 98), airborne measurements of aerosol size distribution, fine-particle concentration, particle absorption coefficient, backscatter coefficient, depolarization, and chemical composition as well as ground-based measurements of spectral particle optical depth and of spectral backscatter and extinction coefficients were performed in the aerosol column above Lindenberg, Germany. We compare the measured optical parameters with calculations from the size distributions, which assume the aerosol to consist of sulfuric acid near the tropopause and mixtures of ammonium sulfate and soot in the remaining column. We obtain closure to within 25% for the optical depth of a column, which includes a biomass-burning aerosol of North American origin, and infer a soot volume fraction of 35% for this aerosol. Assuming spheroidal particles of prolate shape and the average aspect ratio of the particles to be 1.3 in the biomass-burning aerosol layer, the calculated depolarization agrees with the lidar measurement, whereas comparing the spectral backscatter coefficient shows the soot to be externally mixed with the nonabsorbing particles. With the two-stream approximation, we estimate the local, instantaneous, cloud-free radiative forcing of the biomass-burning aerosol at the tropopause to À5.8 W/m 2 with a corresponding optical depth of 0.09 at 710 nm wavelength and solar zenith angle of 56°. The radiative forcing for the biomass-burning aerosol is as sensitive to a change in state of mixture, either external or internal, as to a change in surface albedo, ocean to coniferous forest.
A T-matrix method for scattering by particles with small-scale surface roughness is presented. The method combines group theory with a perturbation expansion approach. Group theory is found to reduce CPU-time by 4-6 orders of magnitude. The perturbation expansion extends the range of size parameters by a factor of 5 compared to non-perturbative methods. An application to optically hard particles shows that small-scale surface roughness changes scattering in side- and backscattering directions, and it impacts the single-scattering albedo. This can have important implications for interpreting remote sensing observations, and for the climate impact of mineral aerosols.
We present what we believe to be the first results of a light-scattering analysis on several Chebyshev particles characterized by higher orders. Chebyshev particles of comparatively lower orders were used in the past to study the effects of nonspherical but concave geometries in remote sensing applications. We will show that, based on the developed methodology, accurate results can also be obtained for particles of higher orders exhibiting a more pronounced surface waviness. The achieved results demonstrate that higher-order Chebyshev particles can be used to estimate the influence of a weak surface roughness on the light-scattering behavior of the underlying smooth scatterer. The effects obtained correspond with the results of other approaches and with the theoretical expectations of a weak surface roughness. In contrast to what is known for regular particles, there can be observed an essential difference between the phase functions of the underlying spherical scatterer and the corresponding higher-order Chebyshev particle if a higher absorptivity of the scattering medium is considered. This paper demonstrates additionally that Chebyshev polynomials can be simply combined with smooth geometries other than spheres.
We present a database containing light scattering quantities of randomly oriented dielectric spheroidal particles in the resonance region. The database has been generated by using a thoroughly tested T-matrix method implementation. The data possess a defined accuracy so that they can be used as benchmarks for electromagnetic and light scattering computations of spheroids. Within its parameter range the database may also be applied as a fast tool to investigate the scattering properties of nonspherical particles and to verify assumptions or statements concerning their scattering behavior. A user interface has been developed to facilitate the data access. It also provides some additional functionalities such as interpolations between data or the computation of size-averaged scattering quantities. A detailed description of the database and the user interface is given, followed by examples illustrating their capabilities and handling. On request, the database including the documentation is available, free of charge, on a CD-ROM.
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