Simulated polarization as a signature of aerosol type

Abstract

We present a technique for determining aerosol type using simulated values of degree of linear polarization as a function of scattering angle. The simulated polarization is determined from retrieved values of the indices of refraction and size parameters as determined from AERONET data sets for aerosols at various sites which we characterize as Urban/Industrial, Biomass-burning, Dust, Maritime and Mixed. We find that each type of aerosol has a characteristic simulated polarization “signature”. The calculated simulated degree of polarization for a particular aerosol observation is compared with a set of standard simulated polarizations using the Frechet distance between the curves. The aerosol type is given by the minimum Frechet distance. We emphasize that the simulated polarization is not the same as the measured polarization.