Correlation Between Atmospheric Backscattering And Meteorological Visual Range

On the basis of present knowledge of the distribution of natural haze particles in the atmosphere, the relation between the back-scatter intensity and the visual range on the extinction coefficient has been analyzed. It can be shown that the various processes which cause the changes in visibility (increasing haze-particle number, change in haze particle-size distribution, etc.) result in rather different back-scatter conditions. Therefore, it cannot be expected that a unique relation between visibility and back-scatter signal can be found. A relation, visibility = f(back-scatter signal), with useful accuracy can be established only for specific atmospheric conditions; this relation, however, may be characteristic for certain geographical areas. These conclusions, derived from natural aerosol distributions and processes, are found to be in agreement with some published empirical data on scattering and visibility correlation. (Author).