OPTICAL MODELS OF ICE CRYSTALS OF CIRRUS CLOUDS FOR ACTIVE REMOTE SENSING OF THE ATMOSPHERE

Cirrus clouds have been the subject of active study in recent decades. However, their influence on solar radiation transfer in the Earth's atmosphere and, consequently, on the planet's climate, has not been sufficiently explored. Space lidars, such as the CALIPSO and EarthCARE, are the primary tools used to study cirrus clouds through active remote sensing. However, interpreting lidar data poses a challenging problem in atmospheric optics. The main obstacle in interpreting lidar data is the lack of a complete solution to the direct problem of light scattering on ice crystal particles of cirrus clouds. This report presents a solution to the problem of light scattering for ice crystal particles commonly found in cirrus clouds, including hexagonal plates and columns, droxtals, and particles of arbitrary shape. The particle sizes ranged from 10 to 1000 µm, and the calculations were performed for six wavelengths 0.355, 0.532, 1.064, 1.55, 2 and 2.15 µm. The solution is presented as a databank of backscattering Mueller matrices.