Aerosol particles in the atmosphere impact the climate through light absorption and scattering processes.  Currently, the radiative forcing by aerosols contributes significantly to uncertainty in climate models.  More detailed optical measurements of particles of non-uniform size, composition, and chemical structure would aid in reducing this uncertainty.  Cavity Ring-Down Spectroscopy (CRDS) is an optical absorption technique that is ideal for measuring extinction coefficients as well as scattering and absorption parameters for atmospheric aerosols.  Optical experiments using various sizes of polystyrene spheres at 355 nm and 532 nm will be compared to Mie scattering calculations in order to characterize the CRDS instrumentation.  Unfortunately, basic Mie scattering calculations fail when used to model non-uniform samples, and various correction techniques must be included.  Multicomponent particles, varying in size and composition, can be produced using current generation techniques and will be used as a comparison to calculated results.  Because most atmospheric aerosols are multi-component, a better understanding of how to theoretically treat them will lead to more accurate models of real-world aerosol interaction with light.<br/>

Measurement of multicomponent aerosol optical properties using pulsed laser cavity ring-down spectroscopy

253rd National Meeting (2017)

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