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An application of the boundary element method (BEM) to the calculation of the single-scattering properties of very complex ice crystals in the microwave and sub-millimetre regions of the electromagnetic spectrum

Kleanthous, Antigoni; Baran, Anthony J; Betcke, Timo; Hewett, David P; Westbrook, Christopher D; (2024) An application of the boundary element method (BEM) to the calculation of the single-scattering properties of very complex ice crystals in the microwave and sub-millimetre regions of the electromagnetic spectrum. Journal of Quantitative Spectroscopy and Radiative Transfer , 312 , Article 108793. 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2023.108793. Green open access

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Abstract

To improve the prediction of weather and climate models there is a need for the accurate computation of the single-scattering properties of randomly oriented complex atmospheric ice crystals. Here, we apply BEM to calculate these properties in the microwave and sub-millimetre region of the electromagnetic spectrum for the purposes of all-sky data assimilation. The properties are calculated at the frequencies of 50, 183, 243 and 664 GHz for the temperatures of −83 °C, −43 °C, and −3 °C. The particles are assumed to be complex aggregates of bullet rosettes with maximum dimensions that vary between 10 and 10,000 mm. Moreover, the rosette-aggregates are constructed to follow an observed mass-dimension power law that is consistent with an ice microphysics scheme in a weather model. To solve efficiently the BEM linear matrix equation, random orientation is simulated by fixing the particle with respect to the incident plane wave with the latter rotated about the particle. This representation is shown to replicate T-matrix solutions found for hexagonal columns to within a few percent for size parameters between 0.05 and 10. We further show that we can simulate the single-scattering properties with errors less than a few percent, using only 14 and up to 302 incident waves for the smallest and largest size parameters respectively. The errors grow larger only for some of the largest size parameters considered. We find that BEM can be applied to compute accurately the scattering properties of complex ice aggregates of importance to weather and climate models.

Type: Article
Title: An application of the boundary element method (BEM) to the calculation of the single-scattering properties of very complex ice crystals in the microwave and sub-millimetre regions of the electromagnetic spectrum
Open access status: An open access version is available from UCL Discovery
DOI: 10.1016/j.jqsrt.2023.108793
Publisher version: https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jqsrt.2023.108793
Language: English
Additional information: This version is the author accepted manuscript. For information on re-use, please refer to the publisher’s terms and conditions.
Keywords: Electromagnetic scattering, Absorption, Microwave, Remote sensing, Weather, Climate, Boundary element method
UCL classification: UCL
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences
UCL > Provost and Vice Provost Offices > UCL BEAMS > Faculty of Maths and Physical Sciences > Dept of Mathematics
URI: https://discovery-pp.ucl.ac.uk/id/eprint/10178915
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