Characteristic features of aerosol scattering of repetitively-pulsed CO2-laser radiation in the atmosphere

An analysis of original data obtained in different seasons on the scatterin g and transmission of CO2-laser radiation in the atmosphere is presented. I t is established that molecular and aerosol absorption make the main contri bution to the attenuation. Data from investigations performed under natural conditions show much higher directionality of the scattering functions tha n the theoretical models do. For scattering angles from 0 degrees to 45 deg rees the directional scattering index drops by more than a factor of 100. A model representation is proposed for the scattering function near 10.6 mu m in the surface layer of the atmosphere. (C) 1999 The Optical Society of A merica. [S1070-9762(99)00511-4].