Earthdata Forum

Hello,

i am running a Mie calculation to compute the aerosol IOPs and trying to compare with SeaDAS, but i am a bit confused about the data in the SeaDAS aerosol LUTs.

1. what is the exact meaning of 'extc' in the aerosol LUTs? extinction coefficient or optical depth? the data is marked as dimensionless, so i would think it's an optical depth,  since extinction coefficient has a unit of '1/m'. but correct me if that's not the case.

2. if 'extc' is optical depth, how is it computed? what is the thickness (in meters) of the aerosol layer? and when mixing the fine mode and coarse mode aerosols, are you assuming a constant number density or constant volume?

I can match the phase function and single scattering albedo with the SeaDAS aerosol LUTs, but extc is way off.

Best,
Yongzhen

Hi Yongzhen, since this is an old post, I am not sure if you were able to resolve your issue. If not, I can work with you on doing that. The spectral extinction coefficient would let you derive the spectral aot (i.e. you scale it for a given aot or concentration of aerosols) for each aerosol model. Can you clarify on your question, please? What kind of numbers are you getting from your calculations?