Backscattered intensity from model atmospheric ice crystals in the millimeter wave range

The effectiveness of modeling atmospheric ice crystals of varying aspect ratios as clusters of spheres is investigated by calculation of the backscattered intensity in the millimeter-wave range by the transition matrix approach. Both single crystals and dispersions with a few choices of the orientational distribu- tion are considered. Our calculations reproduce the features of the backscattered intensity that are due to the overall symmetry of the crystals and yield results in agreement with analogous calculations performed by other authors within the framework of the discrete dipole approximation.