Professor Roy Grainger

Abstract:

Observations from the International Satellite Cloud Climatalogy Project (ISCCP) are used to demonstrate that the 19-level HadAM3 version of the United Kingdom Met Office Unified Model does not simulate sufficient high cloud over land. By using low-altitude winds, from the European Centre for Medium Range Weather Forecasting (ECMWF) Re-Analysis from 1979 to 1994 (ERA-15) to predict the areas of maximum likelihood of orographic wave generation, it is shown that much of the deficiency is likely to be due to the lack of a representation of the orographic cirrus generated by sub-grid scale orography. It is probable that this is a problem in most GCMs.

Abstract:

A new method for the retrieval of the spectral refractive indices of micrometer-sized particles from infrared aerosol extinction spectra has been developed. With this method we use a classical damped harmonic-oscillator model of molecular absorption in conjunction with Mie scattering to model extinction spectra, which we then fit to the measurements using a numerical optimal estimation algorithm. The main advantage of this method over the more traditional Kramers-Kronig approach is that it allows the full complex refractive-index spectra, along with the parameters of the particle size distribution, to be retrieved from a single extinction spectrum. The retrieval scheme has been extensively characterized and has been found to provide refractive indices with a maximum uncertainty of similar to10% (with a minimum of similar to0.1%). Comparison of refractive indices calculated from measurements of a ternary solution of HNO3, H2SO4, and H2O with those published in J. Phys. Chem. A 104, 783 (2000) show similar differences as found by other authors. (C) 2005 Optical Society of America.

Abstract:

Analytical expressions are found for the derivatives of commonly used Mie scattering parameters, in particular the absorption and the scattering efficiencies, and for the angular intensity functions. These expressions are based on the analytical derivatives of the Mie scattering amplitudes a(n) and b(n) with respect to the particle size parameter and complex refractive index. In addition, analytical derivatives are found for the volume absorption and scattering coefficients, as well as for the intensity functions of a population of particles with log normal size distribution. These derivatives are given with respect to the total number density, to the median radius and spread of the distribution, and to the refractive index. Comparison between analytically and numerically computed derivatives showed the analytical version to be 2.5 to 6.5 times as fast for the single-particle and particle-distribution cases, respectively. (C) 2004 Optical Society of America.