Aircraft observations and modeling of sky radiance distributions from aerosol during TARFOX

We present data from three cases studied during TARFOX, the Tropospheric ae rosol Radiative Forcing Observational Experiment. Aircraft measurements of the aerosol chemical composition, size distribution, and hygroscopic growth are used to construct a detailed picture of the aerosol microphysical char acteristics. The distribution of the sky radiance field is then calculated at several wavelengths in the visible and near-infrared region of the spect rum from these data. The simulations are compared with observed radiance di stributions made from one of the aircraft. Reasonable agreement is obtained for two of the cases considered, but significant differences exist for the third, which we are unable to explain at the present time.