Abstract
Understanding new particles formation in the free troposphere is key for air quality and climate change, but requires accurate observation tools. Here, we discuss on the optical requirements ensuring a backscattering device, such as a lidar, to remotely observe nucleation events promoted by nonspherical desert dust or volcanic ash particles. By applying the Mie theory and the T-matrix code, we numerically simulated the backscattering coefficient of spherical freshly nucleated particles and nonspherical particles. We hence showed that, to remotely observe such nucleation events with an elastic lidar device, it should operate in the UV spectral range and be polarization-resolved. Two atmospheric case studies are proposed, on nucleation events promoted by desert dust, or volcanic ash particles. This optical pathway might be useful for climate, geophysical and fundamental purposes, by providing a range-resolved remote observation of nucleation events.
© 2014 Optical Society of America
Full Article | PDF ArticleMore Like This
Alain Miffre, Christophe Anselmo, Sylvain Geffroy, Emeric Fréjafon, and Patrick Rairoux
Opt. Express 23(3) 2347-2360 (2015)
Zhaoyan Liu, Nobuo Sugimoto, and Toshiyuki Murayama
Appl. Opt. 41(15) 2760-2767 (2002)
Zhongwei Huang, Meishi Li, Jianrong Bi, Xingtai Shen, Shuang Zhang, and Qiantao Liu
Opt. Express 31(10) 16909-16919 (2023)