Abstract

The absorption and scattering efficiencies of spherical particles in a certain size range can be approximated by a three-parameter formula. With this formula, an analytic relationship is developed between the extinction, scattering, or adsorption coefficient and the parameters of a log-normal size distribution. The technique permits approximate calculation of these coefficients from the mean radius, its standard deviation, and the total number concentration. By an inversion the size distribution parameters can be estimated from measurements of any of the coefficients at three wavelengths. The calculations require only hand calculators or slide rules. It is shown that use of the technique is justified for many cases of atmospheric aerosol particles and visible radiation.

© 1976 Optical Society of America

Spherical particle populations: approximate analytic relationship between size distribution parameters and integral optical properties; erratum

J. Heintzenberg and M. Baker
Appl. Opt. 15(8) 1904-1905 (1976)

Infrared radiation extinction sensitivity to the modified gamma distribution parameters for haze and fog droplet polydispersions

Claudio Tomasi and Francesco Tampieri
Appl. Opt. 15(11) 2906-2912 (1976)

Local optical parameters of spherical polydispersions: simple approximations

Alexander A. Kokhanovsky and Eleanora P. Zege
Appl. Opt. 34(24) 5513-5519 (1995)

Aerosol size distributions: remote determination from air-borne measurements of the solar aureole

J. T. Twitty, R. J. Parent, J. A. Weinman, and E. W. Eloranta
Appl. Opt. 15(4) 980-989 (1976)

Single-scattering properties of triaxial ellipsoidal particles for a size parameter range from the Rayleigh to geometric-optics regimes

Lei Bi, Ping Yang, George W. Kattawar, and Ralph Kahn
Appl. Opt. 48(1) 114-126 (2009)