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The effects of non‐sphericity on geostationary satellite retrievals of dust aerosols
Author(s) -
Wang Jun,
Liu Xiong,
Christopher Sundar A.,
Reid Jeffrey S.,
Reid Elizabeth,
Maring Hal
Publication year - 2003
Publication title -
geophysical research letters
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 2.007
H-Index - 273
eISSN - 1944-8007
pISSN - 0094-8276
DOI - 10.1029/2003gl018697
Subject(s) - sphericity , scattering , aerosol , phase function , geostationary orbit , phase (matter) , environmental science , mie scattering , physics , remote sensing , satellite , meteorology , light scattering , optics , geology , astronomy , quantum mechanics
Using data collected during the Puerto Rico Dust Experiment (PRIDE), we examine the effect of non‐spherical phase functions on dust aerosol retrievals from geostationary satellites. We utilize a statistical model based on Scanning Electron Micrograph (SEM) analysis of individual dust particles. Using T‐matrix calculations and assuming that dust particles are randomly‐orientated oblate spheroids we compute the dust phase function and scattering properties. Although the non‐spherical function developed in this study compares well with the synthetic non‐spherical phase functions [ Liu et al. , 2003], new retrievals using the non‐spherical phase function only show slight improvement at scattering angles (Θ) from 110° ∼ 150°, and become worse for Θ between 150° ∼ 170°. However the retrievals are greatly improved at all angles when retrieval algorithms account for the combined effect of both spherical and non‐spherical phase functions.