Polarized Radiative Transfer of a Cirrus Cloud Consisting of Randomly Oriented Hexagonal Ice Crystals: The 3 x 3 Approximation for Non-Spherical Particles

Abstract: The reflection and transmission of polarized light for a cirrus cloud consisting of randomly oriented hexagonal columns were calculated by two very different vector radiative transfer models. The forward peak of the phase function for the ensemble-averaged ice crystals has a value of order 6 x 10(exp 3) so a truncation procedure was used to help produce numerically efficient yet accurate results. One of these models, the Vectorized Line-by-Line Equivalent model (VLBLE), is based on the doubli…