Retrieval of aerosol size distributions by inversion of simulated aureole data in the presence of multiple scattering.

ABSTRACT

Inversion of solar almucantar data is a simple and practical method of obtaining aerosol size distributions. In this paper, we have inverted a number of sets of simulated data, using the standard single scattering approximation, to test the errors involved in ignoring multiple scattering. We have also inverted the data using two techniques one, a modification of the method proposed by Deirmendjian and Sekera; and the other that of McPeters and Green. Inversion results strongly suggest that the accuracy of the retrieved size distribution can be significantly improved by use of our modified Deirmendjian-Sekera approach, in which multiple scattering by molecules is included along with single scattering by molecules and aerosols.