Aerosol optical properties assessed by an inversion method using the solar principal plane for non-spherical particles

Adequate modeling of light scattering by non-spherical particles is one of the major difficulties in remote sensing of atmospheric aerosols, mainly in desert dust outbreaks. In this paper we test a parameterization of the particle shape in size distribution, single-scattering albedo, phase function and asymmetry parameter retrieval from beam and sky-radiance measurements, based on the model Skyrad.pack, taking into account the principal plane measurements configuration. The method is applied under different Saharan dust outbreaks. We compare the results with those obtained by the almucantar measurements configuration. The results obtained by both methodologies agree and make possible to extend the parameter retrieval to smaller zenith angles than that used in the retrieval from almucantar geometries.