Abstract

Solar radiation, traveling outside cloud water droplets, excites sharp resonances and surface waves by tunneling into the droplets. This effect contributes substantially to the total absorption (typically, of the order of 20%) and yields the major contribution to backscattering, producing the meteorological glory. Usual computational practices in atmospheric science misrepresent resonance contributions and cannot be relied on in the assessment of possible anomalies in cloud absorption.

© 2003 Optical Society of America

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