Backscatter ratios for arbitrary oriented hexagonal ice crystals of cirrus clouds.

Three dimensionless ratios widely used for interpretation of lidar signals, i.e., the color ratio, lidar ratio, and depolarization ratio, have been calculated for hexagonal ice crystals of cirrus clouds as functions of their spatial orientation. The physical-optics algorithm developed earlier by the authors is applied. It is shown that these ratios are minimal at the horizontal crystal orientation. Then these quantities increase with the effective tilt angle approaching the asymptotic values of the random particle orientation. The values obtained are consistent with the available experimental data.