Photopolarimetry Measurements of Aerosols (NASA/GISS)

[Source: NASA/GISS] The suggestion that polarimetry is the right tool to reliably constrain the aerosol radiative forcing is based on both scientific and instrumental considerations. The scientific basis for such a contention is theoretical modeling of the scattering of light by spherical and non-spherical particles. This has demonstrated the variation of polarization with scattering angle and wavelength to be extremely informative about the size, refractive index and shape of aerosol particles. Moreover these polarization features in scattered radiation are less affected by multiple scattering than intensity features are.