Study of Large Aerosol Particles.

This report develops a stratospheric aerosol optical model which is based on a size distribution determined from direct measurements and additionally constrained to be consistent with large data sets of independently measured macroscopic aerosol properties such as mass and backscatter. The period under study covers background as well as highly disturbed volcanic conditions and an altitude interval ranging from the tropopause to about 30 km. The predictions of the model are used to interpret and intercompare diverse types of stratospheric aerosol measurements. Keywords Stratosphere Aerosol optical model Size distribution Laser backscatter Volcanic aerosol Aerosol mass.