Due to the inadequate understanding of the scattering properties of nonspherical aerosols, considerable uncertainties still exist in the radiative transfer numerical simulation. To this end, a new scattering model for nonspherical aerosols is established based on Multi-Resolution Time-Domain (MRTD) scheme. The model is comprised of three modules: near field calculation module, near-to-far transformation module and scattering parameters computation module, in which, the near electromagnetic field is calculated by MRTD technique, the near-to-far transformation scheme is performed by volume integral method, and the calculation models for extinction and absorption cross section are directly derived from Maxwell’s curl equations in the frequency domain. To achieve higher computational efficiency, the model is further parallelized by MPI non-blocking repeated communication technique. The accuracy of the scattering model is validated against Lorenz-Mie, Aden-Kerker and T-matrix theories for spherical particles, particles with inclusions and nonspherical particles. At last, the parallel computational efficiency of the MRTD scattering model is quantitatively discussed as well. The results obtained by parallel MRTD scattering model show an excellent agreement with those of the well-tested scattering theories, where the relative simulation errors of the phase function are less than 5% for most scattering angles. In backward directions, the simulation errors are much larger than that in forward scattering directions due to the stair approximation in particle construction. The computational accuracy of the integral scattering parameters like extinction and absorption efficiencies is higher than phase matrix, where the simulation errors of extinction and absorption efficiencies for the particle with a size parameter of 10 achieve −0.4891% and −1.6933%, respectively.

Retrieval of ice cloud properties using passive terahertz wave radiometer from space has gained increasing attention currently. A multi-channel regression inversion method for passive remote sensing of ice water path (IWP) in the terahertz band is presented. The characteristics of the upward terahertz radiation in the clear-sky and cloudy-sky are first analyzed using the Atmospheric Radiative Transfer Simulator (ARTS). Nine representative center frequencies with different offsets are selected to study the changes of terahertz radiation caused by microphysical parameters of ice clouds. Then, multiple linear regression method is applied to the inversion of IWP. Combinations of different channels are selected for regression to eliminate the influence of other factors (i.e., particle size and cloud height). The optimal fitting equation are obtained by the stepwise regression method using two oxygen absorption channels (118.75 ± 1.1 GHz, 118.75 ± 3.0 GHz), two water vapor absorption channels (183.31 ± 1.0 GHz, 183.31 ± 7.0 GHz), and two window channels (243.20 ± 2.5 GHz, 874.4 ± 6.0 GHz). Finally, the errors of the proposed inversion method are evaluated. The simulation results show that the absolute errors of this method for the low IWP cases are below 7 g/m², and the relative errors for the high IWP cases are generally ranging from 10 to 30%, indicating that the multi-channel regression inversion method can achieve satisfactory accuracy.

In order to improve the computational efficiency of multi-resolution time domain (MRTD) scattering model, a multi-size synchronous-computational scheme (MSCS) is proposed. By using MSCS, the scattering properties of the particles with different sizes can be simultaneously calculated by MRTD model in one wave-particle interaction simulation. In this model, the pulse plane wave with a wide spectrum is taken as the incident light, and the light scattering simulation for particles with different sizes is transformed into the scattering calculation for a size-fixed particle at different wavelengths. To guarantee the stability and precision of the improved MRTD (IMRTD) model, the method to design model’s input parameters, such as the spatial resolution, discrete time interval and pulse width, is proposed. To validate the accuracy of IMRTD model, its results are compared with those of Mie and T-Matrix theory, and the influence of spatial resolution on the precision of IMRTD is analyzed as well. At last, model’s computational efficiency is also discussed. The simulation results show that, IMRTD method can calculate the scattering parameters of particles with different sizes simultaneously and accurately, where, in case that the pulse width is 5.56 × 10⁻⁸ns, and the radius of the size-fixed particle is 0.5μm (its size parameter is 6.28), light scattering process by particles with size parameters up to 12.56 can be successfully simulated. With the increasing of spatial resolution, the simulation accuracy is improved for all particles, and the improvement for large particles is more notable than that for small ones. It can also be found that the computational efficiency of IMRTD is much higher than that of traditional version.

To improve solid precipitation monitoring in the hydrology and meteorology field, 1-min precipitation data observed by the PARticle SIze VELocity (PARSIVEL) disdrometer in Nanjing, eastern China, from February 2014 to February 2019 for all days with solid precipitation, were used to study the microphysical characteristics of winter precipitation. In this study, the empirical V-D (velocity–diameter) relationships and observed surface temperature are used for matching precipitation types, and the precipitation data are divided into rain, graupel, wet snow and dry snow. The results show that dry snow and wet snow have maximum D_m (mass-weighted mean diameter) and minimum log₁₀N_w (normalized intercept parameter), while rain shows the opposite. Additionally, the μ-Λ (shape parameter–slope parameter) curve of dry snow and wet snow is very close, and the μ value of dry snow and wet snow is higher than that of graupel and higher than that of rain for the same Λ value. Furthermore, the Z_e-S (equivalent reflectivity factor–precipitation intensity) relationships among different types of precipitation are significantly different. If only the Z_e-S relationship of rain is used for quantitative precipitation estimation (QPE), then, for small precipitation intensity, solid precipitation will be overestimated, while, for large precipitation intensity, it will be underestimated.

Light scattering by non-spherical particles is an important factor influencing atmospheric radiative transfer. To accurately simulate the scattering properties of non-spherical particles, the Invariant Imbedded T-matrix method (IIM T-Matrix) is developed by combining the Lorenz–Mie theory and invariant imbedding technique. In this model, the non-spherical particle is regarded as an inhomogeneous sphere and discretized into multiple spherical layers in the spherical coordinate system. The T-matrix of the inscribed sphere is firstly calculated by the Lorenz–Mie theory, and then taking it as the initial value, the T-matrix is updated layer by layer by using the invariant imbedding technique. To improve the computational efficiency, the model is further parallelized by the OpenMP technique. To verify the simulation accuracy of the IIM T-Matrix method, the results of the model are compared with those of the EBCM (Extended Boundary Condition Method) T-Matrix method, DDA (Discrete Dipole Approximation) and MRTD (Multi-Resolution Time Domain). The results show that the scattering phase matrix simulated by the IIM T-Matrix method closely agrees with that of the well-tested models, indicating that the IIM T-Matrix method is a powerful tool for the light scattering simulation of non-spherical particles. Since the IIM T-Matrix method is derived from the volume integral equation, compared to the T-Matrix method which is based on surface integral principles (i.e., “EBCM” or the “null field method”), it can be applied to the scattering calculations of particle with arbitrary shapes and inhomogeneous compositions, which can greatly expand the application scope of the T-Matrix method.