Using simple particle shapes to model the Stokes scattering matrix of ensembles of wavelength-sized particles with complex shapes: possibilities and limitations

We investigate to what extent the full Stokes scattering matrix of an ensemble of wavelength-sized particles with complex shapes can be modeled by employing an ensemble of simple model shapes, such as spheres, spheroids, and circular cylinders. We also examine to what extent such a simple-shape particle model can be used to retrieve meaningful shape information about the complex-shaped particle ensemble. More specifically, we compute the Stokes scattering matrix for ensembles of randomly oriented particles having several polyhedral prism geometries of different sizes and shape parameters. These ensembles serve as proxies for size-shape mixtures of particles containing several different shapes of higher geometrical complexity than the simple-shaped model particles we employ. We find that the phase function of the complex-shaped particle ensemble can be accurately modeled with a size distribution of volume-equivalent spheres. The diagonal elements of the scattering matrix are accurately reproduced with a size-shape mixture of spheroids. A model based on circular cylinders accurately fits the full scattering matrix including the off-diagonal elements. However, the modeling results provide us with only a rough estimate of the effective shape parameter of the complex-shaped particle ensemble to be modeled. They do not allow us to infer detailed information about the shape distribution of the complex-shaped particle ensemble.