Single-scattering by mineral dust particles modeled with
spheroids
S. Merikallio*,1, H. Lindqvist2, T. Nousiainen2 and M. Kahnert3
- 1 Department of Climate Change, Finnish Meteorological Institute, P.O. box 503, FI-00101 Finland.
- 2 Department of Physics, University of Helsinki, P.O. box 48, 00014 Finland.
- 3 Swedish Meteorological and Hydrological Institute, Folkborgsvägen 1, S-60176 Sweden.
We study how well different mineral dust samples can be modeled using spheroids and whether the best-fit spheroidal shape distributions bear any similarities that would allow us to suggest a generic first-guess shape distribution for dust. Overall, spheroids are found to fit the measurements significantly better than Mie spheres. However, it seems that best-fit shape distributions vary between samples and even between wavelengths considerably, making suggestions for a first-guess shape distribution difficult.
- * Corresponding author