Introduction
During the atmosphere aging process of emitted combustion products, soot
particles tend to become hydrophilic and form mixtures with weakly
light-absorbing materials (Mikhailov et al., 2006; Adachi et al., 2007;
Moteki and Kondo, 2007; Shiraiwa et al., 2007, 2010; Adachi and Buseck,
2008). Because of significant enhancements in light absorption and
scattering, it has been suggested that soot particles in a mixing state are
the second most important contributor to global warming after carbon dioxide
(Jacobson, 2001; Ramanathan et al., 2008). For climate monitoring and
numerical prediction via atmospheric data assimilation, precise estimation of
the amount of mixed soot particles and the fraction of soot (black carbon)
from satellite- and ground-based remote-sensing measurements is important
(Kahnert et al., 2013). Thus, understanding the optical properties of
internally mixed soot particles is essential to improve the retrieval
accuracy of atmospheric soot particles (Hara et al., 2018). The
light-scattering properties of internally mixed particles depend strongly on
the complex refractive index of each mixing component. Furthermore, the shape
of the incorporated soot particles and overall particle shape in the mixing
state significantly alter some of the scattering properties. In particular,
particle shape is important for the interpretation of lidar backscattering
measurements. Many shape models have been proposed for internally mixed soot
particles and their light-scattering properties using the discrete-dipole
approximation (DDA) and T-matrix methods (Adachi et al., 2010; Scarnato et
al., 2013; Cheng et al., 2014; Dong et al., 2015; Liu et al., 2016;
Mishchenko et al., 2016; Moteki, 2016; Wu et al., 2016, 2017; Kahnert, 2017;
Zhang et al., 2017; Luo et al., 2018). However, the relationship between
mixing state or morphology and light-scattering
properties is not well defined.
As an alternative model for soot particles in a mixing state, we developed a
new shape model of internally mixed particles. We assumed that bare soot
particles with fractal-like shapes were mixed with water-soluble (WS)
components. Moreover, we considered hydrophilic soot particles with high
wettability due to atmospheric aging. The shapes of the mixed particles were
determined by applying artificial potential calculations of the surface
tension of the WS components. The numerical results of the light-scattering
properties of the modeled particles at visible and near-infrared wavelengths
are discussed.
Shape model of internally mixed aerosols
Soot model
Bare soot particles are commonly described as fractal aggregates formed from
primary particles (or monomers) with a degree of overlapping and necking
between neighboring primary particles (Yon et al., 2015; Okyay et al., 2016).
Primary particles have a diameter of 20–50 nm (Bond and Bergstrom, 2006),
and the fractal dimension of the aggregates depends on emissions' conditions
and atmospheric aging. For example, newly generated soot aggregates often
form lace-like structures with relatively small fractal dimensions, whereas
aged soot aggregates tend to be compact and to be characterized by large
fractal dimensions (Mikhailov et al., 2001, 2006; Zhang et al., 2016). In
this study, we modeled soot aggregates using spatial Poisson–Voronoi
tessellation. The basic methods to make the aggregate model are the same as
those of dust particles and ice aggregates described in our previous works
(Ishimoto et al., 2010, 2012a, b; Baran et al., 2018). A spatial
Poisson–Voronoi tessellation was produced from randomly distributed
nucleation points in the numerical field, and polyhedral cells overlapping
with the assumed fractal frame were selected from the tessellation (Ishimoto
et al., 2012a). We regarded the cells (i.e., Voronoi cells) as the primary
soot aggregate particles to mimic overlapping and necking between neighboring
primary particles. To ensure that the size of the Voronoi cells was
relatively uniform, we applied a Matérn hard-core point field (Ohser and
Mücklich, 2000) to the spatial distribution of the nucleation points
(Ishimoto et al., 2012b). Aggregate particles of different sizes were
produced in the same manner but by changing the relative size of the fractal
frame within the same tessellation. Figure 1 shows two sets of aggregate
particles (Types A and B) created from fractal frames of different shapes. To
calculate the light-scattering properties, Type A aggregates of 10 sizes and
Type B aggregates of 13 sizes (where nos. 1, 2 and 3 were used for both
sets) were prepared. The mean radius of the primary particle a=20 nm was
used as a typical value (Wu et al., 2015, 2017; Mishchenko et al., 2016; Luo
et al., 2018), and the total size of each aggregate was corrected by
adjusting the average cell volume of the aggregate as Vc,agg=4/3πa3. Although the aggregates shown in Fig. 1 were created using a
box-counting approach to maintain a fractal relationship between size and
shape, this fractal relationship differed from that of the commonly used
fractal dimension Df used to describe individual soot particles.
The fractal dimension Df is defined from the number of monomers
N, fractal prefactor k0 and gyration radius Rg as follows
(Adachi et al., 2007):
N=k0RgaDf.
For numerical simulation of the light-scattering properties of aged soot
particles, various Df values for a typical prefactor of
k0=1.2 have been proposed in the literature, such as
Df= 2.0–2.5 (Nyeki and Colbeck, 1995), 1.9–2.6 (Adachi et al.,
2007), 2.5 (He et al., 2015), 2.6 (Mishchenko et al., 2016) and 2.5–3.0
(Zhang et al., 2017). The corresponding Df values for our modeled
soot particles derived from the calculation of Rg are plotted in
Fig. 2. Applying the fractal prefactor k0=1.2 resulted in aggregate
particles in the range of Df= 1.9–2.5 (Type A) and 2.5–3.0
(Type B) given a normalized gyration radius of lnRg/a≤3.6.
Model of bare soot particles created using three-dimensional Voronoi
tessellation (Types A and B).
Relationship between the number of cells Ncell
assuming Ncell=N, from Eq. (1), and normalized gyration
radius Rg/a for the modeled soot aggregates. Asterisks and open
circles correspond to Type A and Type B aggregates, respectively. Solid lines
represent the relationship described by Eq. (1) for fractal dimensions of
Df=1.9,2.5,3.0 when k0=1.2.
Artificial surface tension of mixed soot and water-soluble
components
According to microscopic images of internally mixed soot particles, soot
particles are often entirely encapsulated in a spherical shell and
completely covered by WS components (Reid and Hobbs, 1998; Reid et al.,
2005a). Thus, WS components behave like a liquid on the particle surface,
and the surface tension of WS components is important to describing the
overall shapes of mixed particles. Surface tension is the result of
intermolecular forces at the microscopic scale, described as the
Lennard-Jones potential (Becker et al., 2014). Although some approaches to
simulate surface tension in a discrete particle system, such as smoothed
particle hydrodynamics, have been proposed (Tartakovsky and Meakin,
2005; Leinonen and von Lerber, 2018), a general approach to reproduce the
variety of fluid effects has not yet been developed (Akinci et al., 2013).
In this study, we examined a virtual and simple potential field on the
surface of the modeled particle to simulate the morphological effects of
surface tension. We assumed that the dynamic behavior of liquid could be
simulated by the movement of liquid elements from locations of high
potential to locations of low potential. From a simple molecular-scale
explanation of surface tension, the potential at a surface point becomes
smaller as the number of surrounding molecules increases. The modeled
particles were projected in a three-dimensional Cartesian grid space to
define surface points for the potential calculations. The artificial surface
potential was defined as an analog of the microscopic surface potential.
Uj≡-∑ifi,fi=1rij≤dfi=0rij>d,
where Uj is the artificial potential at surface point j, and Uj
is defined as the negative value of the total number of grid points of
material with distance r≤d. We used this simple model for the surface
potential calculations to focus on the shape of the mixture in discrete grid
space. An equilibrium mixing state was simulated assuming that the applied
WS components preferentially accumulate at grid points of lower potential.
The shape of internally mixed particles under an arbitrary volume mixing
ratio was determined based on iterative calculations of the surface
potential and by adding WS elements. In the artificial potential
calculations in Eq. (2), the setting of the length d is important. We applied two
steps for the potential calculations and adhesion of WS components for each
iterative calculation.
d1=3l,Nadd=0.016Nsd2=Max(d1dcor),Nadd=0.004Ns,
where l is the grid length of the space, d1 and
d2 are the lengths d for first and second steps and
Nadd is the number of grid points for WS adhesion, which are
chosen from the total surface points Ns (note that a surface
point is defined as an empty grid and neighbor of an occupied grid). Small
d1 values resulted in a coated particle with a thin layer at a
local scale. By contrast, WS components tended to accumulate in the same
region on particles when a large d1 was applied. We assumed the
parameter d1 to be the minimum scale to derive isotropic potential in
the discrete Cartesian grid space and determined the value
d1=3l from our results for shapes of coated particles in
preliminary calculations. The second step in Eq. (3) is important,
particularly when WS components cover the entire soot aggregate, and the
value d2 is determined to ensure that the overall shape of the
mixed particle is spherical. The correction length dcor is the
minimum length at which the curvature of the sphere with a radius R can be
discriminated from the calculated artificial potential in the grid field, and
dcor is estimated from the following relationships.
43πR3=NVl3,4πR2γ=Nsl3,Rsinθ=dcor,Rcosθ=R-ldcor=l6NVγNsl-1,
where NV is the total number of grid points occupied by the material,
and γ is the effective skin depth (γ=1.51l). Figure 3 presents a schematic diagram describing dcor in a two-dimensional
case.
Schematic diagram of the distance dcor based on the
artificial potential calculation for a two-dimensional case. Open circles
represent surface points for the potential field calculation, and solid
circles indicate points occupied by material. To discriminate the curvature
of the radius R from the calculated potential at surface point j, the
length d in Eq. (2) should be larger than dcor. A
spherical mixed particle is automatically generated from the potential
calculations and adding water-soluble material when the soot particle is
completely encapsulated.
The artificial potential was calculated for each iterative step, and
Nadd of WS elements was added, starting with the grid points of
lowest potential. The internally mixed soot model (i.e., the particle shape
modeled based on artificial surface tension, AST hereafter) was created for
different values of the volume ratio
Vr=Vws/Vsoot, where Vws and
Vsoot are the volumes of the WS and soot materials,
respectively. Figure 4 shows the results of several mixed soot models for
Vr∼0,2,5,10,20. The total number of iterations was
approximately 1000 (2000) to create Vr∼10 (Vr∼20)
particles. For simplicity, we neglected the difference in materials (i.e.,
soot or WS) in the potential calculations of Eq. (2), which implicitly
assumes that soot material is sufficiently hydrophilic, with high WS
wettability. Although we made assumptions in the modeling of these
particles, their shapes are similar to those observed by electron microscopy
(Adachi et al., 2010; Fig. 5). The shape model of the particle was
ultimately defined using a three-dimensional rendering technique.
Mixed soot particle model developed using artificial surface tension
(AST) for the attached water-soluble material. Several Type A (Type B)
aggregates of different sizes were used on the left (right) side. The
marching cubes method was applied for surface rendering.
An example transmission electron microscopy (TEM) image of an
internally mixed soot particle. The sample was collected from biomass burned
during the Biomass Burning Observation Project (BBOP) (Adachi et al., 2018).
The soot particle has an aggregate structure of spherical monomers and is
embedded within organic material. This particle looks similar to the AST-A
particles (e.g., no. 6 particle with Vr=5 in Fig. 4).
Single-scattering properties
We calculated the light-scattering properties using the finite-difference
time-domain (FDTD) method (Cole, 2005; Taflove and Hagness, 2005; Ishimoto
et al., 2012a) and DDA (DDSCAT version 7.3; https://code.google.com/archive/p/ddscat/ (last access: 25 December 2018); Draine and
Flatau, 1994). Particles defined by discrete points as the input for the
light-scattering calculations were reconstructed from the shape model
described in Sect. 2, and the grid length was set within the range
2≤2a/l≤10 for correct reproduction of the defined
aggregates within the numerical convergence criterion. Although soot
particles are generally small aerosols, large computational resources for
FDTD and DDA calculations are necessary to estimate the exact scattering
properties of the mixed particles due to the fine structure of soot and
additional volume contributed by WS material. Using the same discretized
particle under an appropriate convergence condition, the scattering
properties calculated by FDTD would have approximately the same accuracy as
those derived from DDA (Yurkin et al., 2007). However, the numerical cost of
the two methods differs depending on the particle shape and the refractive
index of the particle material (Yurkin et al., 2007). The memory and CPU
time of the DDA calculations mainly depend on the number of discretized
points (i.e., dipoles) and depend on particle volume. Meanwhile, the
numerical costs of the FDTD calculations are determined by the size of the
discretized numerical field that encloses the particle. For fractal-shaped
particles of relatively small fractal dimensions, DDA calculations are
faster than FDTD ones because of the small relative volume with respect to
size. By contrast, the numerical cost of DDA calculations drastically
increases as the volume of attached WS elements increases, whereas the FDTD
method can output results within similar CPU times given similar total
sizes. Therefore, we used both numerical methods for the light-scattering
calculations in accordance with the size and shape of the particles. In the
numerical environment of our nonparallel computation, light-scattering
calculations performed using FDTD were faster than those using DDA for AST-B
particles (nos. 10–13).
Single-scattering albedo ω versus particle size
(volume-equivalent sphere radius: req) at a wavelength of
λ=532nm for the (a) AST model of Type A
aggregates (AST-A), (b) Maxwell-Garnett approximation (MG) and
(c) core-shell approximation (CS). Results for the same bare soot
aggregate at different volume ratios of Vr∼0251020 are
plotted in the same color. Aggregate numbers are the same as those in
Fig. 1.
As Fig. 6, but for the results of the asymmetry factor g.
As indicated in Sect. 2 and shown in Figs. 1 and 2, 10 sizes of bare soot
aggregates with a volume-equivalent sphere radius
req=0.02-0.20µm for Type A and 13 sizes with
req=0.02-0.42µm for Type B were prepared, and
internally mixed particles of Vr∼0,2,5,10,20 were
numerically created for each soot particle. The corresponding size ranges of
the mixed soot particles were req=0.02-0.55µm for
Type A (AST-A) and req=0.02-1.15µm for Type B
(AST-B). Assuming a synthetic analysis using satellite- and ground-based
multi-channel radiometer and lidar measurements, 10 wavelengths from
near-ultraviolet to near-infrared (340, 355, 380, 400, 500, 532, 675, 870,
1020 and 1064 nm) were selected. We used a spectral refractive index dataset by
Chang and Charalampopoulos (1990) for the bare soot material. For the WS
components, the dependence of the refractive index on relative humidity was
considered, and relative humidity values of 0 %, 50 %, 90 % and 98 %
in the software package Optical Properties of Aerosols and Clouds (OPAC) were
applied (Hess et al., 1998). The outputs included the results of the
light-scattering properties with those averaged over 88 orientations for the
FDTD method and 100 orientations for the DDA method.
Complex refractive index (n+ik) of soot and water-soluble (WS)
components used for light-scattering calculations (Figs. 6–10). A
relative humidity of 50 % was assumed for the WS component.
Wavelength (nm)
Soot
Water-soluble
n
k
n
k
355
1.392
0.6985
1.441
2.469×10-3
532
1.723
0.5837
1.437
2.982×10-3
1064
1.830
0.5573
1.427
8.691×10-3
As examples of the numerical results, Figs. 6 and 7 present the size
(req) dependence of single-scattering albedo (ω) and the
asymmetry factor (g) at a wavelength of λ=532 nm for
AST-A. The complex refractive indices for soot and WS are listed in Table 1,
for which the refractive index at a relative humidity of 50 % was applied for
WS. For comparison, the results of ω and g with the same Vr
but derived via Mie calculations for spheres of the effective refractive
index calculated using the Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule (MG) (Bohren and
Huffman, 1983) and for spheres with a soot-core/WS-shell structure (CS) were
also plotted.
For ω and g at λ=532 nm, the results of the AST
model were approximately consistent with previous modeled results (Dong et
al., 2015; Liu et al., 2016). The results of ω for AST-A at Vr=0
markedly differed from those of MG and CS due to the volume-equivalent sphere
approximation adopted in the MG and CS treatments. The results of ω for
AST-A with Vr≥2 showed a similar trend to the MG and CS results such that
the MG results were closer to AST-A than CS results were. Regarding the asymmetry
factor, g depends mainly on the particle size req and is less
sensitive to the mixing ratio Vr. The derived g for AST-A fell between
the results of MG and of CS, with the MG results closer to those of AST-A.
Because the primary particle of the assumed soot (a=0.02µm)
was smaller than the wavelength and the Type A aggregates were fractal shapes
with relatively small Df (Figs. 1 and 2), the effective medium
theory based on the MG mixing rule offered a better approximation than
the CS approximation did for the AST-A model.
Results of the lidar ratio L for particles derived from the
AST-A model at wavelengths of (a) 355, (b) 532 and
(c) 1064 nm. Panels (d)–(f) are the same as
(a)–(c), but for spheres with an average refractive index
calculated using the Maxwell-Garnett mixing rule (MG). Panels (g)–(i) are the same as (a)–(c), but for core-shell (CS)
spheres. Colors and volume ratios Vr for each point are
the same as those in Fig. 6a for the AST-A model (Vr∼0251020 from left to right for circles of the same color). For
(d)–(i), calculations were performed for Vr≤20
with a step size of 0.01 µm.
As Fig. 8, but for internally mixed Type B particles
(AST-B) (a–c), MG (d–f) and CS (g–i). The
horizontal scale differs from that shown in Fig. 8.
Compared to ω and g, the backscattering properties of particles are
sensitive to particle shape and mixing state. Therefore, lidar measurements
could potentially offer information on the validity of the particle model.
The calculated lidar ratio L and linear depolarization ratio
δL for the AST-A and AST-B particles at wavelengths of 355,
532 and 1064 nm are plotted in Figs. 8–10. For a single particle, L is
calculated from ω and the normalized phase function P11 in the
backscattering direction, and δL is derived from the
P11 and P22 components of the scattering matrix. Here, we omitted
the backscattering of P12 for δL due to the assumption
of random particle orientation.
L=4πωP11,δL=P11-P22P11+P22
For lidar ratios, the MG and CS sphere results for the same volume of bare
soot aggregates and the same req range of Vr≤20 as that for
AST-A and AST-B are also plotted in Figs. 8 and 9. Because backscattering
P11 is sensitive to the size of spherical particles, calculations were
performed at a step size of 0.01 µm. The lidar ratios of CS particles
tended to be smaller than those of MG particles, and the difference between
MG and CS was significant at wavelengths of 355 and 532 nm. Furthermore,
the lidar ratios of AST-A and AST-B particles were approximately between the
MG and CS results for particles of the same req and mixing ratios,
particularly for entirely encapsulated Vr≥1 particles. As denoted in
the asymmetry factor results, MG and CS corresponded to two extreme cases of
mixture soot materials within the WS shell; our lidar ratio results for
fractal-like soot shapes among AST-A and AST-B are reasonable.
Results of the linear depolarization ratio δL for
particles derived from the AST-A model at wavelengths of (a) 355,
(b) 532 and (c) 1064 nm. Panels (d)–(f) are the same as
(a)–(c), but for AST-B particle results.
Due to strong absorption properties, bare soot particles showed small
depolarization ratios δL (Fig. 10). As the Vr value increased, δL of the AST particles increased through the mixing
of weak absorbing material (i.e., WS), and δL began to decrease
for larger values of Vr due to their spherical shape. This indicates
that the smooth surface created by a thin WS coating was rather ineffective
for reducing δL when the overall shape was highly nonspherical.
As a result, AST particles of the same bare soot size as those shown in
Fig. 10 (data of same color) had a peak depolarization ratio. To some
extent, peak values of δL were larger for larger bare soot
particles at shorter wavelengths. This implies that the particle size
parameter xeq (=2πreq/λ) is an important factor for the
evaluation of δL as well as shape nonsphericity.
According to the biomass smoke measurement results, the size of dry particles
was 0.10–0.16 µm at count median diameter (0.25–0.30 µm
at volume median diameter) (Reid et al., 2005a). Laboratory and in situ
measurements for aged biomass smoke yielded estimates of ω≥0.75
and g∼0.6 at λ=532 nm (Reid et al., 2005b; Pokhrel et al.,
2016). For lidar measurements, typical values of L∼70 sr and
δL∼7 % at λ=532 nm have been reported
(Groß et al., 2015a, b). Among our optical property results for AST-A,
particle no. 4 (Vr=20) had values of ω,g,L,δL=0.87,0.67,69sr,0%, and particle no. 5 (Vr=2) had values of ω,g,L,δL=0.54,0.63,188sr,6%. Using the refractive index of a typical soot particle, relatively
high values of Vr would be necessary to simulate ω≥0.75. In the AST model, the soot aggregate was entirely encapsulated by WS
components, and the overall shape became spherical under large Vr
values. Although such spherical particles have consistent lidar ratios of
L∼70 sr, the depolarization ratio becomes δL∼0
for spherical shapes. By contrast, large depolarization ratios can occur if
internally mixed particles are highly nonspherical. Moreover, the reported
spectral dependence of depolarization ratios δL,355nm∼20%,δL,532nm∼9%,δL,1064nm∼2% from airborne measurements
for smoke plumes (Burton et al., 2015; Mishchenko et al., 2016) can be
explained, for example, by the AST-A particle no. 6 (Vr=5-10;
Fig. 10a–c). However, such nonspherical mixed particles tended to have
relatively large lidar ratios of L≥100 sr at λ=355,532nm in the AST-A model. In the comparison between AST-A and
AST-B particles, variation in L and δL for AST-B was
greater than for AST-A. At λ=355 nm, the measurement-derived
lidar ratio was L355nm=76±12sr (Groß et
al., 2015b). The value was difficult to explain for MG particles, but was
relatively consistent with the large Vr observed for AST-A and AST-B
particles and some CS particles. By contrast, the calculated depolarization
ratios of AST-A and AST-B particles at both λ=355 and 532 nm
exceeded 30 % for larger aggregates with a high amount of coating. These
ratios were higher than those measured for biomass burning
(7 %–16 %; Groß et
al., 2015b), suggesting that the depolarization ratios of nonspherical soot
particles were easily enhanced when coated with weakly absorbing WS material.
A similar effect was previously reported (Kahnert, 2017). According to
Kanngießer and Kahnert (2018), the speed of transition from film coating
to spherical growth (Pei et al., 2018) is a morphological parameter that
strongly affects the depolarization ratio. A rapid transition to spherical
growth may cause a smaller depolarization ratio of internally mixed soot
particles.
Overall, the results shown in Figs. 8–10 suggest that the effects of
internal mixing on lidar backscattering are strongly related to changes in
absorption and shape properties due to mixing and bare soot particle size.
However, it was difficult to simulate average smoke optical properties
ω,g,L,δL and their spectral dependence
solely using AST-A or AST-B particles.
Among the field measurements, the observed optical properties were the
average of the particle size distribution. Our results indicate that the
presence of large mixed soot particles may enhance the bulk δL of
smoke.
Typical values of Vr for mixed biomass smoke particles likely
depend on the relative humidity, concentrations of WS components and
the size and shape of soot aggregates. The mixing of different aerosol types, such as
dust in biomass burning (Groß et al., 2011, 2013), may be important for
the interpretation of measured optical properties. Improved retrieval
calculations based on realistic aerosol simulations that consider particle
size and shape distribution and other types of aerosol contamination are expected
using our AST model for internally mixed soot particles.
Summary
For satellite- and ground-based remote-sensing analysis applications, we
developed a shape model of internally mixed soot particles and calculated
the optical properties of particles at visible and near-infrared
wavelengths. Fractal-like structures extracted using spatial Voronoi
tessellation were considered to mimic necking and overlapping between
neighboring primary particles. We created two types of polyhedral aggregates
with different particle shape–size dependences (Type A and Type B) to
account for the effects of compaction on soot aggregate shape during the
atmospheric aging process. Then the artificial surface potential for the
particle in a Cartesian grid space was defined, and the surface tension of
the WS components on the soot aggregate was simulated, assuming that the
soot was hydrophilic with high wettability. Based on a simple assumption of
the behavior of WS elements, the shapes of internally mixed soot particles
dependent on the amount of attached dissolved material were determined from
iterative calculations. Overall, an aggregate coated with a thin film was
simulated given a relatively small volume of added WS components, whereas
the soot aggregate was covered with a spherical shell given a large number of WS components. The optical properties of the developed internally mixed
particles were calculated using the FDTD and DDA methods while considering
the spectral dependence on the refractive indices.
For single-scattering albedo and asymmetry, AST model results were similar
to those for MG and CS, except when the WS ratio was low (Vr∼0).
Due to shape irregularities, the lidar ratios of AST particles in random
orientation were less sensitive to particle size than those of MS and CS
particles. The L values of AST particles were approximately between those
of MG and CS particles. For AST particles, δL increased as the
amount of weakly absorbing material (i.e., WS) increased, and δL
decreased as particle shape became spherical. As a result, irregularly
shaped soot particles had peak depolarization ratios during the internal
mixing process. Maximum δL values tended to be larger when the
size parameters of nonspherical mixed particles were large. Following
comparisons with reported optical features, we determined that average
optical properties ω,g,L,δL and their
spectral dependences for measured biomass burning aerosols cannot be
simulated by a single particle in our internally mixed soot model. In
particular, AST particles tended to have larger lidar ratios and
depolarization ratios than those obtained by field measurements. The
inconsistencies in lidar backscattering properties between the model results
and measurements may remain unresolved even after size-averaging the optical
properties. One possible explanation for this phenomenon is that soot
aggregates change their shapes to become more compact (i.e., become
spherical) during the WS adhesion process in the atmosphere. The
contribution of the core-shell type of internally mixed soot particles and
the use of the nonspherical model may be necessary to simulate observed
results for burned biomass aerosols.
In addition to its use in direct analyses for the field measurement results,
the dataset of the AST particle optical properties can be used for the
parameterization of conventional spherical particle models, such as the MG
model, CS model, and their combined model. Furthermore, the dataset will be
useful for determining the shape property conditions of smoke particles
observed from multi-sensor measurements, including lidar backscattering.