Modeling atmospheric aerosol backscatter at CO_2 laser wavelengths 3: Effects of changes in wavelength and ambient conditions

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Abstract
The effects of changes in wavelength and ambient conditions on the atmospheric backscatter at CO2 wavelengths have been examined. It has been found that, with the exception of (NH4)2SO4-containing aerosols, whose size distributions have relatively large numbers of small particles, the variation of backscatter with CO2 wavelength is less than a factor of ~3. However, for such (NH4)2SO4 aerosol distributions, the variation of backscatter function with CO2 wavelengths between 9.1 and 11.1 μm may reach 1 order of magnitude. The effects of ambient humidity and temperature changes are negligibly small when the relative humidity is low (90%), a few percent change in humidity or a few degrees change in temperature may cause noticeable change in backscatter from aerosol particles of small sizes.