Analysis of the atmospheric aerosol size distribution information retrievable from near-limb angular radiance measurements taken on Mauna Loa, Hawaii
Angular radiance measurements of the near-limb solar aureole were analyzed for information regarding the light-scattering aerosol particles in the atmospheric column above Mauna Loa, Hawaii. The Mauna Loa Observatory, located at 19/sup 0/ 33' N latitude, 155/sup 0/ 35' W longitude, and 3460 metres elevation, is in unpolluted air above the easterly trade wind inversion and has been designated as a site for the Geophysical Monitoring for Climatic Change (GMCC) program. Circumsolar radiance and polarization measurements have been collected on Mauna Loa since 1963 by the High Altitude Observatory (HAO), National Center for Atmospheric Research (NCAR) as part of a program for the daily observation of the solar corona. Strip charts containing radiance measurements made from January 1976 through June 1978 were made available for this study. By the use of Mie scattering theory, generalized to treat the sun as a finite diameter light source with limb-darkening, a theoretical scattering matrix was calculated for observation angles between 17' and 300' measured from the center of the solar disk, and aerosol size parameters (2..pi..r/lambda) between 10 and 300. An information content criterion is presented, based on the expected relative norm of the measurement errors and on the eigenvalues of the radiance covariance matrix of the scattering matrix. The observed aureole radiance gradients and two test gradients were inverted to obtain aerosol size distributions using a constrained linear inversion algorithm.
- Research Organization:
- Lawrence Livermore National Lab., CA (USA)
- DOE Contract Number:
- W-7405-ENG-48
- OSTI ID:
- 5843499
- Report Number(s):
- UCRL-53233; ON: DE82005999
- Resource Relation:
- Other Information: Thesis
- Country of Publication:
- United States
- Language:
- English
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Related Subjects
AEROSOLS
PARTICLE SIZE
EARTH ATMOSPHERE
DISTRIBUTION
HAWAII
RADIANT FLUX DENSITY
SCATTERING
SUN
COLLOIDS
DISPERSIONS
FLUX DENSITY
MAIN SEQUENCE STARS
NORTH AMERICA
SIZE
SOLS
STARS
USA
WESTERN REGION
500200* - Environment
Atmospheric- Chemicals Monitoring & Transport- (-1989)