Nonsphericity of dust-like tropospheric aerosols: Implications for aerosol remote sensing and climate modeling

Journal Article · Mon May 01 04:00:00 EDT 1995 · Geophysical Research Letters

DOI:https://doi.org/10.1029/95GL00798· OSTI ID:117665

Mishchenko, M I; Lacis, A A; Carlson, B E; Travis, L D ^[1]

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1. NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York, NY (United States)

T-matrix computations of light scattering by polydispersions of randomly oriented nonspherical aerosols and Mie computations for equivalent spheres are compared. Findings show that even moderate nonsphericity results in suubstantial errors in the retrieved aerosol optical thickness if satellite reflectance measurements are analyzed using Mie theory. On the other hand, the use of Mie theory for nonspherical aerosols produces negligible errors in the computation of albedo and flux related quantities, provided that the aerosol size distribution and optical thickness are known beforehand. The first result can be explained by large nonspherical-spherical differences in scattering phase function, while the second result follows from small nonspherical-spherical differences in single-scattering albedo and asymmetry parameter. No cancellation of errors occurs if one consistently uses Mie theory in the retrieval algorithm and then in computing the albedo for the retrieved aerosol optical thickness.

• Research Organization: National Aeronautics and Space Administration, New York, NY (United States). Goddard Inst. for Space Studies
• OSTI ID: 117665
• Journal Information: Geophysical Research Letters, Journal Name: Geophysical Research Letters Journal Issue: 9 Vol. 22; ISSN GPRLAJ; ISSN 0094-8276
• Country of Publication: United States
• Language: English

Related Subjects

54 ENVIRONMENTAL SCIENCES
AEROSOLS
ALBEDO
CLIMATE MODELS
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
REFRACTIVE INDEX
REMOTE SENSING
SPHERES