Inversion of Mie Extinction Measurements Using Analytic Eigenfunction Theory

Abstract

We have employed the analytic eigenfunction technique, first developed by McWhirter and Pike, to obtain aerosol columnar size distributions from realistic Mie extinction measurements. The theory was tested out and its range of validity established using synthetic data. After that, the method was applied to several sets of volcanic ash cloud data, and the results compared with those for a constrained linear inversion. The technique is extremely easy to apply once the Mellin transform of the kernel has been obtained.