Effects of nonsphericity on the behavior of Lorenz-Mie resonances in scattering characteristics of liquid-cloud droplets

•T-matrix method reveals effects of cloud droplet nonsphericity on Lorenz-Mie resonances.•Positions and profiles of resonances can change significantly with increasing asphericity.•Degree of asphericity required to suppress a resonance is proportional to the resonance width.

By using the results of highly accurate T-matrix computations for randomly oriented oblate and prolate spheroids and Chebyshev particles with varying degrees of asphericity, we analyze the effects of a deviation of water-droplet shapes from that of a perfect sphere on the behavior of Lorenz-Mie morphology-dependent resonances of various widths. We demonstrate that the positions and profiles of the resonances can change significantly with increasing asphericity. The absolute degree of asphericity required to suppress a Lorenz-Mie resonance is approximately proportional to the resonance width. Our results imply that numerical averaging of scattering characteristics of real cloud droplets over sizes may rely on a significantly coarser size-parameter resolution than that required for ideal, perfectly spherical particles.