HITRAN 2012 refractive indices

•The refractive indices of HITRAN 2012 are reviewed.•Additions to HITRAN focus on absorptive aerosol.•The HITRAN-RI program is introduced and discussed.

The HITRAN 2012 compilation of the real and imaginary refractive indices of the materials in aerosols and cloud particles is reviewed. Additions to HITRAN 2012 focus upon materials that are absorptive (i.e. minerals, burning vegetation, brown carbon, desert dust, and volcanic ash). The HITRAN-RI program, created to facilitate usage of the indices, is discussed. The HITRAN-RI program inter-compares the indices of different data sets and calculates optical properties (i.e. extinction, scattering, absorption, single scattering albedo, backscattering, and asymmetry parameter) for user specified size distributions and particle types. The instructional component of HITRAN-RI introduces the user to Mie calculations for spheres and coated spheres, and applies various mixing rules by which one calculates the effective indices of a multi-component particle.