Effect of Polygonal Agglomerated Ice Crystals on Laser Scattering

Abstract

Cirrus clouds contain a large number of irregular small ice crystals. These solid ice crystals cause energy loss and reduce the signal-to-noise ratio at the receiver, causing errors in reception. Considering the random motion and structural diversity of ice particles in cirrus clouds, the discrete dipole approximation method was used to establish sphere-sphere, sphere–ellipsoid, sphere-hexagonal prism, and sphere-hexagonal plate ice particle models. The effects of different agglomerated ice particles on the laser extinction, absorption, and scattering efficiency, as well as the laser intensity and Mueller matrix elements, were analyzed, and the scattering characteristics of agglomerated ice particles in different spatial orientations were preliminarily explored. The results show that the spatial orientation of the clustered particles has great influence on the scattering characteristics. The maximum relative error of the scattering efficiency was 200%, and the maximum relative error value of the elements of the Mueller matrix reaches 800-fold. The results of this study provide theoretical support for further analysis of the scattering characteristics of ice crystal particles with complex agglomeration structures and for further study of the scattering characteristics of randomly moving agglomeration particles in cirrus clouds.