Optical properties of continental haze and cumulus and orographic clouds based on Space Shuttle polarimetric observations.
Digitized Space Shuttle imagery in the red, green, and blue spectral regions (0.600, 0.540, and 0.435 µm, respectively) is used to characterize the mean radius and the index of refraction of droplets in cumulus and orographic clouds. The clouds are shown to consist concurrently of submicrometer and supermicrometer droplets, with the percent polarization indicative of the dominant sizes. Cloud development from haze as well as inhomogeneities in the cloud decks can be traced remotely. The absorption properties of clouds can also be determined remotely. An optical depth of continental haze in the same three spectral regions as the clouds is computed from the polarimetric and photometric contributions. Both Mie and Rayleigh scattering are included in the model.
Egan
W G
WG
Israel
S
S
Sidran
M
M
Hindman
E E
EE
Johnson
W R
WR
Whitehead
V S
VS