Backscattered intensity from model atmospheric ice crystals in the millimeter-wave range

The effectiveness of modeling atmospheric ice crystals of varying aspect ra tios as clusters of spheres is investigated by calculation of the backscatt ered intensity in the millimeter-wave range by the transition matrix approa ch. Both single crystals and dispersions with a few choices of the orientat ional distribution are considered. Our calculations reproduce the features of the backscattered intensity that are due to the overall symmetry of the crystals and yield results in agreement with analogous calculations perform ed by other authors within the framework of the discrete dipole approximati on. (C) 2001 Optical Society of America.