Single-scattering Properties of Ice Particles in the Microwave Regime: Temperature Effect on the Ice Refractive Index with Implications in Remote Sensing

An ice crystal single-scattering property database is developed in the microwave spectral region (1 to 874GHz) to provide the scattering, absorption, and polarization properties of 12 ice crystal habits (10-plate aggregate, 5-plate aggregate, 8-column aggregate, solid hexagonal column, hollow hexagonal column, hexagonal plate, solid bullet rosette, hollow bullet rosette, droxtal, oblate spheroid, prolate spheroid, and sphere) with particle maximum dimensions from 2µm to 10mm. For each habit, four temperatures (160, 200, 230, and 270K) are selected to account for temperature dependence of the ice refractive index. The microphysical and scattering properties include projected area, volume, extinction efficiency, single-scattering albedo, asymmetry factor, and six independent nonzero phase matrix elements (i.e. P11, P12, P22, P33, P43 and P44). The scattering properties are computed by the Invariant Imbedding T-Matrix (II-TM) method and the Improved Geometric Optics Method (IGOM). The computation results show that the temperature dependence of the ice single-scattering properties in the microwave region is significant, particularly at high frequencies. Potential active and passive remote sensing applications of the database are illustrated through radar reflectivity and radiative transfer calculations. For cloud radar applications, ignoring temperature dependence has little effect on ice water content measurements. For passive microwave remote sensing, ignoring temperature dependence may lead to brightness temperature biases up to 5K in the case of a large ice water path.