Laboratory Measurements of Light Scattering by Simulated Atmospheric Aerosols

Abstract

Using the Stokes vector formulation measurements are reported of the four principal components of the scattering matrix under controlled laboratory conditions. Two ranges of scattering conditions are considered: atmospheric air as a function of relative humidity (HAZE) and water droplet clouds (FOGS). A 50-mW (6328-Å) He–Ne laser is used as the light source. A sensitive automated polar nephelometer, which has been developed for these measurements, records the scattered light as a function of scattering angle from 6° to 174°. A digital computer is used to calculate the matrix elements from the raw experimental data. The results may be compared with the theoretical computations of Deirmendjian and the field work of Rozenberg. The results of the experiments show pronounced dependence upon the relative humidity and the properties of the fogs that are explicable qualitatively. However, quantitative inversion of light scattering data to obtain such information as the size distribution requires comprehensive experiments of high precision and large amounts of computer time.