Abstract

The degradation of contrast in a snowy atmosphere can be explained by examining the phase function of natural snow crystals. The phase function determines the apparent broadening of a source as the radiation is scattered in the atmosphere. Since the orientation of the snow crystals as well as their size and shape must be considered when calculating scattering, the phase functions of various types of snow crystals are needed in order to compute the transmission through a snowy atmosphere. The snow crystal phase functions are also of importance in problems involving radiative transfer in cloud atmospheres as high altitude clouds consist mainly of ice crystals.

© 1983 Optical Society of America