Determination of the complex index of refraction and size distribution of aerosols from polar nephelometer measurements.

The polar nephelometer of Tohoku University has been improved so that it can be used to measure the scattering matrix element D21. Polar nephelometer observations were conducted at Tohoku University in the suburbs of Sendai, Japan, from 12 October to 10 December 1988. A method presented in an earlier publication [Appl. Opt. 36, 7992 (1997)] is applied to determine the complex index of refraction and size distribution of aerosols simultaneously. It is shown that the accuracy of the determined quantities is reasonable.