Document Type
Article
Publication Date
12-28-2024
Department
Department of Physics
Abstract
The glory, a striking optical phenomenon seen from space in unpolarized satellite images can be mapped onto the cloud's droplet sizes with a characteristic scale of 10 (Formula presented.). Such a mapping allows us to infer the mean and variance of the cloud droplets' radius, an important property that has remained elusive and inaccessible to passive unpolarized satellite sensing. Here, we propose a simple and robust polarization-like differential approach to map the glory's spectral properties to the desired moments of the droplet size distribution. By taking the differences between two spectrally close channels, we reduce multiple scattering contributions and amplify the single-scattering signal, thus allowing for a simple and rapidly converging map from glory to droplet size distribution. Moreover, the droplet information reflects the upper part of the cloud, adding another sample to the traditional multiple scattering-based retrievals that reflect droplet properties deeper in the cloud.
Publication Title
Geophysical Research Letters
Recommended Citation
Koren, I.,
Kostinski, A.,
&
Wollner, U.
(2024).
Spectral Differencing of Glories Reflects Cloud Droplet Size Distribution.
Geophysical Research Letters,
51(24).
http://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL110631
Retrieved from: https://digitalcommons.mtu.edu/michigantech-p2/1267
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-No Derivative Works 4.0 International License.
Version
Publisher's PDF
Publisher's Statement
© 2024. The Author(s). Publisher’s version of record: https://doi.org/10.1029/2024GL110631