Determination of optical parameters of atmospheric particulates from ground-based polarimeter measurements

✍ Scribed by J. G. Kuriyan; D. H. Phillips; R. C. Willson

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1974
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 669 KB
• Volume: 100
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0035-9009
• DOI: 10.1002/qj.49710042613

✦ Synopsis

Abstract

This paper describes the theoretical analysis that is required to infer, from polarimeter measurements of skylight, the size distribution, refractive index and abundance of particulates in the atmosphere. To illustrate the viability of the method, some data obtained at UCLA is analysed and the atmospheric parameters are derived. The explicit demonstration of the redundancy in the description of aerosol distributions suggests that radiation field measurements will not uniquely determine the modal radius of the size distribution. In spite of this non‐uniqueness information useful to heat budget calculations can be derived.