An Algorithm to Derive Aerosol Properties From Multi-Wavelength/Angle Radiance Measurements

Abstract

A knowledge of aerosol optical properties and concentrations is required for modeling their impact on radiative transfer. These aerosol properties are often derived from passive radiation measurements at several wavelengths. In doing this, one encounters the problem that the multi-wavelength information is not sufficient to address the various unknown aerosol properties including concentration, aerosol size distribution, phase function, single scatter albedo and index of refraction. In order to address this problem, a new aerosol model was developed from in-situ aerosol measurements which were carried out in the Pacific, Atlantic and Indian Ocean. After sorting each aerosol distribution by their dry mass they were combined and a double lognormal curve was used to fit the resulting distributions. A example of the model sulfate accumulation mode and sea salt coarse mode is shown in figures 1 and 2.