10th International Aerosol Conference
September 2 - September 7, 2018
America's Center Convention Complex
St. Louis, Missouri, USA

Abstract View


Fractal Morphology of Black Carbon Aerosol Enhances Absorption on the Thermal Infrared Wavelengths

WILLIAM HEINSON, Rajan K. Chakrabarty, Washington University in St. Louis

     Abstract Number: 997
     Working Group: Carbonaceous Aerosol

Abstract
We numerically calculate the mass absorption cross sections (MACs) of black carbon fractal aggregates in the thermal infrared solar spectrum. Compared to equivalent-size spheres, the MAC values of aggregates show a percent enhancement of ≈150 and 400 at small and large length scales, respectively. The absorption properties of aggregates with size parameters >1 surprisingly continued to remain in the Rayleigh optics regime. We explain this phenomenon using the Maxwell–Garnett effective medium theory and the concept of phase shift parameter.