AAAR 36th Annual Conference October 16 - October 20, 2017 Raleigh Convention Center Raleigh, North Carolina, USA
Abstract View
Single Scattering Albedo of Homogeneous, Spherical Particles in the Small and Large Particle Limit
HANS MOOSMULLER, Chris Sorensen, Desert Research Institute
Abstract Number: 317 Working Group: Aerosol Physics
Abstract The aerosol single scattering albedo (SSA) is the dominant intensive particle parameters determining the aerosols radiative forcing in the earth’s atmosphere. Here, we use Mie theory to examine the behavior of SSA as a function of size parameter x and complex refractive index m for homogeneous spherical particles. We focus on the limiting cases of the small particle limit (x << 1) and the large particle limit (x >> 1), where we compare Mie theory with Rayleigh and geometric optics plus diffraction approximations. We show how the SSA in the small particle limit depends on size parameter x and complex refractive m and in the large particle limit on m and how Mie theory results converge to Rayleigh and geometric optics plus diffraction approximations.