Search NASA⌕ Search

SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “ATMOSPHERIC SCATTERING”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 253 records · Page 14
All sourcesNASA NTRSDOE OSTI
NASA NTRS2016

Degree of Ice Particle Surface Roughness Inferred from Polarimetric Observations

The degree of surface roughness of ice particles within thick, cold ice clouds is inferred from multidirectional, multi-spectral satellite polarimetric observations over oceans, assuming a column-aggregate particle habit. An improved roughness inference scheme is employed that provides a more noise-resilient roughness estimate than the conventional best-fit approach. The improvements include the introduction of a quantitative roughness parameter based on empirical orthogonal function analysis and proper treatment of polarization due to atmospheric scattering above clouds. A global 1-month data sample supports the use of a severely roughened ice habit to simulate the polarized reflectivity associated with ice clouds over ocean. The density distribution of the roughness parameter inferred from the global 1- month data sample and further analyses of a few case studies demonstrate the significant variability of ice cloud single-scattering properties. However, the present theoretical results do not agree with observations in the tropics. In the extra-tropics, the roughness parameter is inferred but 74% of the sample is out of the expected parameter range. Potential improvements are discussed to enhance the depiction of the natural variability on a global scale.

surface↗
NASA NTRS2019

CLARREO Pathfinder/VIIRS Intercalibration: Quantifying the Polarization Effects on Reflectance and the Intercalibration Uncertainty

Atmospheric scattering and surface polarization affect radiance measurements of polarization-sensitive instruments on orbit. Neglecting the polarization effects may lead to an inaccurate radiance/reflectance determination and underestimated radiance/reflectance uncertainty. Of the two instruments, CERES and VIIRS, slated to be intercalibrated by the CLARREO Pathfinder(CPF), the latter is known to be sensitive to polarization. The Pathfinder mission is tasked with accurately determining the uncertainty contribution of polarization and will provide the bench mark for the determination of the polarization correction factor for polarization-sensitive instruments. In this article, we show the formalism necessary to correct the reflectance for sensitivity to polarization after the CLARREO Pathfinder/VIIRS intercalibration, as well as the associated polarization uncertainty contribution to the overall intercalibrated reflectance error. To illustrate its usage, the formalism is applied to three dominant scene types.

Goldin, Daniel↗
NASA NTRS2020

Solar Contamination in Extreme-precision Radial-velocity Measurements: Deleterious Effects and Prospects for Mitigation

Solar contamination, due to moonlight and atmospheric scattering of sunlight, can cause systematic errors in stellar radial velocity (RV) measurements that significantly detract from the ~10 cm/s sensitivity required for the detection and characterization of terrestrial exoplanets in or near habitable zones of Sun-like stars. The addition of low-level spectral contamination at variable effective velocity offsets introduces systematic noise when measuring velocities using classical mask-based or template-based cross-correlation techniques. Here we present simulations estimating the range of RV measurement error induced by uncorrected scattered sunlight contamination. We explore potential correction techniques, using both simultaneous spectrometer sky fibers and broadband imaging via coherent fiber imaging bundles, that could reliably reduce this source of error to below the photon-noise limit of typical stellar observations. We discuss the limitations of these simulations, the underlying assumptions, and mitigation mechanisms. We also present and discuss the components designed and built into the NEID (NN-EXPLORE Exoplanet Investigations with Doppler spectroscopy) precision RV instrument for the WIYN 3.5m telescope, to serve as an ongoing resource for the community to explore and evaluate correction techniques. We emphasize that while “bright time” has been traditionally adequate for RV science, the goal of 10 cm/s precision on the most interesting exoplanetary systems may necessitate access to darker skies for these next generation instruments.

Arpita Roy↗
NASA NTRS2020

Bias in CMIP6 Models as Compared to Observed Regional Dimming and Brightening

Anthropogenic aerosol emissions have increased considerably over the last century, but climate effects and quantification of the emissions are highly uncertain as one goes back in time. This uncertainty is partly due to a lack of observations in the pre-satellite era, making the observations we do have before 1990 additionally valuable. Aerosols suspended in the atmosphere scatter and absorb incoming solar radiation and thereby alter the Earth's surface energy balance. Previous studies show that Earth system models (ESMs) do not adequately represent surface energy fluxes over the historical era. We investigated global and regional aerosol effects over the time period 1961–2014 by looking at surface downwelling shortwave radiation (SDSR). We used observations from ground stations as well as multiple experiments from eight ESMs participating in the Coupled Model Intercomparison Project Version 6 (CMIP6). Our results show that this subset of models reproduces the observed transient SDSR well in Europe but poorly in China. We suggest that this may be attributed to missing emissions of sulfur dioxide in China, sulfur dioxide being a precursor to sulfate, which is a highly reflective aerosol and responsible for more reflective clouds. The emissions of sulfur dioxide used in the models do not show a temporal pattern that could explain observed SDSR evolution over China. The results from various aerosol emission perturbation experiments from DAMIP, RFMIP and AerChemMIP show that only simulations containing anthropogenic aerosol emissions show dimming, even if the dimming is underestimated. Simulated clear-sky and all-sky SDSR do not differ greatly, suggesting that cloud cover changes are not a dominant cause of the biased SDSR evolution in the simulations. Therefore we suggest that the discrepancy between modeled and observed SDSR evolution is partly caused by erroneous aerosol and aerosol precursor emission inventories. This is an important finding as it may help interpret whether ESMs reproduce the historical climate evolution for the right or wrong reason.

surface downwelling shortwave radiation (SDSR)↗
NASA NTRS2020

EARLINET evaluation of the CATS Level 2 aerosol backscatter coefficient product

We present the evaluation activity of the European Aerosol Research Lidar Network (EARLINET) for the quantitative assessment of the Level 2 aerosol backscatter coefficient product derived by the Cloud-Aerosol Transport System (CATS) aboard the International Space Station (ISS; Rodier et al., 2015). The study employs correlative CATS and EARLINET backscatter measurements within a 50 km distance between the ground station and the ISS overpass and as close in time as possible, typically with the starting time or stopping time of the EARLINET performed measurement time window within 90 min of the ISS overpass, for the period from February 2015 to September 2016. The results demonstrate the good agreement of the CATS Level 2 backscatter coefficient and EARLINET. Three ISS overpasses close to the EARLINET stations of Leipzig, Germany; Évora, Portugal; and Dushanbe, Tajikistan, are analyzed here to demonstrate the performance of the CATS lidar system under different conditions. The results show that under cloud-free, relative homogeneous aerosol conditions, CATS is in good agreement with EARLINET, independent of daytime and nighttime conditions. CATS low negative biases are observed, partially attributed to the deficiency of lidar systems to detect tenuous aerosol layers of backscatter signal below the minimum detection thresholds; these are biases which may lead to systematic deviations and slight underestimations of the total aerosol optical depth (AOD) in climate studies. In addition, CATS misclassification of aerosol layers as clouds, and vice versa, in cases of coexistent and/or adjacent aerosol and cloud features, occasionally leads to non-representative, unrealistic, and cloud-contaminated aerosol profiles. Regarding solar illumination conditions, low negative biases in CATS backscatter coefficient profiles, of the order of 6.1 %, indicate the good nighttime performance of CATS. During daytime, a reduced signal-to-noise ratio by solar background illumination prevents retrievals of weakly scattering atmospheric layers that would otherwise be detectable during nighttime, leading to higher negative biases, of the order of 22.3 %.

Emmanouil Proestakis↗
NASA NTRS1991

A description of the correlated k distributed method for modeling nongray gaseous absorption, thermal emission, and multiple scattering in vertically inhomogeneous atmospheres

A radiative transfer method for treating nongray gaseous absorption and thermal emission in vertically inhomogeneous multiple scattering atmospheres is described. Probability density distributions of absorption coefficient strength are derived from line-by-line calculations to construct line-by-line and band model based k distributions. The monotonic ordering of absorption coefficient strengths in these k distributions implicitly preserves the monochromatic structure of the atmosphere at different pressure levels, thus simulating monochromatic spectral integration at a fraction of the line-by-line computing cost. The k distribution approach also permits accurate modeling of overlapping absorption by different atmospheric gases and accurate treatment of nongray absorption in multiple scattering media. It is shown that the correlated k distribution method is capable of achieving numerical accuracy to within 1 percent of cooling rates obtained with line-by-line calculations throughout the troposphere and most of the stratosphere.

Lacis, Andrew A.↗
NASA NTRS2018

Does Orbital Angular Momentum Have Effect on Laser’s Scattering by Molecular Atmosphere?

Lasers with orbital angular momentum (OAM) have potential applications in communication technology, manipulation of particles, and remote sensing. Because of its unusual light-scattering properties, the OAM laser’s interaction with a molecular atmosphere must be studied to ensure that it is not lossy for communication or remote-sensing applications that involve its transmission through an atmospheric environment. In this study, the finite-difference time-domain (FDTD) method [21] is applied to calculate the light scattering of the purely azimuthal (the radial mode number is assumed to be zero) Laguerre-Gaussian (LG) beams with OAM by very small dielectric particles. Not like Lorentz-Mie solutions, the FDTD method can calculate for particles off the central axis of the LG beam. It is found that when the particles are very small, and the topological charge number of the OAM of a laser is not extremely large, the laser’s OAM has little effect on the scattering phase function. This suggests that Rayleigh theory can be applied directly to calculate the light scattering by atmospheric molecules. The transmission of a laser beam with OAM in a molecular atmosphere is not different from that of a regular Gaussian beam.

Molecular atmosphere↗
NASA NTRS1989

Analytical expressions for the Rosseland-mean opacity and electron scattering in stellar atmospheres

Simple analytical approximations for the calculations of the electron scattering coefficient, the Rosseland-mean opacity and the equation of state in the temperature range of 4000 to 50,000 K and the density range of 10 to the -13th to 10 to the -7th g/cu cm. These approximations are valid for a gas with 1, 0.1, and 0.01 times the solar metal abundances in LTE. The accuracy of the approximations is better than 5 percent over most of this temperature and density range.

Burger, P.↗
NASA NTRS1976

Multiple scattering in planetary atmospheres

Certain simple procedures for solving radiative transfer problems in planetary atmospheres are reviewed: the similarity relations relating isotropic to anisotropic scattering, asymptotic results relating known solutions for semi-infinite layers to desired solutions for optical depths, and expansions relating known solutions for conservative scattering to desired solutions for the nearly conservative case. The complications introduced by atmospheric inhomogeneity, surface reflection, and spectral features are also discussed.

Irvine, W. M.↗
NASA NTRS1981

Inelastic scattering in planetary atmospheres. I - The Ring effect, without aerosols

The contribution of inelastic molecular scattering (Rayleigh-Brillouin and rotational Raman scattering) to the filling-in of Fraunhofer lines in the light of the blue sky is studied. Aerosol fluorescence is shown to be negligible, and aerosol scattering is ignored. The angular and polarization dependences of the filling-in detail for single scattering are discussed. An approximate treatment of multiple scattering, using a backward Monte Carlo technique, makes it possible to investigate the effects of the ground albedo. As the molecular scatterings alone produce more line-filling than is observed, it seems likely that aerosols dilute the effect by contributing unaltered sunlight to the observed spectra.

Kattawar, G. W.↗
NASA NTRS1979

Inverse multiple scattering problems. III - Inadequacy of certain limb darkening and phase curves for retrieving atmospheric information and limitations of approximate scattering models

The paper considers three complementary inverse multiple scattering problems relating to a uniquely defined atmospheric scattering model. Consideration is given to the appropriateness, for data inversion purposes, of intensities observed in diffuse reflection under a variety of experimental conditions; the uniqueness of the inverse solution is investigated. It is found that light curves representing monotonic variations, such as limb darkening curves and phase curves for a planetary (e.g., Venus) disk center are unsuitable for inferring atmospheric and scattering parameters.

Fymat, A. L.↗
NASA NTRS1980

Calculation of multiple scattered radiation in clean atmospheres

Calculations of the multiple-scattered solar radiation in the earth's atmosphere are compared with telephotometer measurements of the sky intensity obtained during the EPA-sponsored Visibility Impairment by Sulfate Transport and Transformation in the Atmosphere experiment. The doubling and adding calculation technique, in which the reflection and transmission properties of the atmosphere are computed by initially calculating such properties for the case of very thin layers and then adding adjacent layers together, is described and compared with data for two cloudless sky conditions. The first is typical of clean tropospheric conditions, and the second represents an ultraclean atmosphere in which surface aerosol scattering is much lower than molecular scattering. Good agreement is found between the computations and the measurement data.

Bergstrom, R. W.↗
NASA NTRS2011

On the Accuracy of Double Scattering Approximation for Atmospheric Polarization Computations

Interpretation of multi-angle spectro-polarimetric data in remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols require fast and accurate methods of solving the vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE). The single and double scattering approximations could provide an analytical framework for the inversion algorithms and are relatively fast, however accuracy assessments of these approximations for the aerosol atmospheres in the atmospheric window channels have been missing. This paper provides such analysis for a vertically homogeneous aerosol atmosphere with weak and strong asymmetry of scattering. In both cases, the double scattering approximation gives a high accuracy result (relative error approximately 0.2%) only for the low optical path - 10(sup -2) As the error rapidly grows with optical thickness, a full VRTE solution is required for the practical remote sensing analysis. It is shown that the scattering anisotropy is not important at low optical thicknesses neither for reflected nor for transmitted polarization components of radiation.

Korkin, Sergey V.↗