Dynamics of Microphysical Parameters of Pyrolysis Smoke Based on the Results of Inversion of Aerosol Scattering and Extinction Coefficients in the Big Aerosol Chamber of IAO SB RAS

Abstract

The temporal variability of microphysical parameters of pyrolysis smoke, retrieved by inverting the characteristics of aerosol scattering and extinction, has been studied. The polarization scattering phase functions and spectral extinction coefficients were measured for 65 hours in smoke aerosols produced from thermal decomposition of pine wood during low-temperature pyrolysis in the Big Aerosol Chamber (BAC) of Institute of Atmospheric Optics, Siberian Branch, Russian Academy of Sciences. The microstructure parameters (volume concentration and mean radius of particles with division into fine and coarse fractions) and the complex refractive index of pyrolysis smoke are retrieved following the developed algorithm for inverting optical measurements. The real part of the refractive index is found to be in the vicinity of n = 1.55, and the imaginary part is in the range 0.007 < κ < 0.009; the mean radius of fine particles varies in the narrow range 0.137–0.146 μm. During smoke aging, the particle ensemble-mean radius monotonically increased from 0.19 to 0.6 μm mainly due to a relative increase in the content of coarse aerosol. Results of this work are important for estimation of the radiative forcing of aerosol and improvement of climate models and algorithms of remote optical sounding.