The Effect of Atmospheric Aerosols on Scattered Sunlight

Abstract

Theoretical computations of the intensity and polarization of diffusively transmitted sunlight are presented for two wavelengths, λ = 4290 Å and λ = 5000 Å. The computations are for atmospheres containing various distributions of aerosols, as well as normal molecular constituents, and allow for all significant orders of scattering. The theoretical computations are compared with observations, and it is shown that inclusion of aerosols in the theoretical models results in considerably better agreement between observation and theory than can be achieved by assuming a pure molecular atmosphere for the theoretical computations.