Appl Opt. 2015 Feb 01;54(4):B12-21. doi: 10.1364/AO.54.000B12.
Applied optics
Souichiro Hioki, Hironobu Iwabuchi
PMID: 25967818 DOI: 10.1364/AO.54.000B12
Brightness and chromaticity profiles were extracted from a vivid solar corona image taken with a digital camera in Sendai, Japan, to compare with a radiative transfer simulation applying Lorenz-Mie theory and single-scattering approximation. The comparison revealed suspended particles having a narrow particle size distribution peaking at radius 14.5 μm. Presumably, pollen of an indigenous coniferous tree, the cryptomeria (Cryptomeria japonica), is responsible for the corona display. The extracted brightness and chromaticity profiles are reproduced well by assuming the presence of a water soluble aerosol and dust in addition to the pollen. We find that photographic analysis of corona displays, similar to that used to measure cloud particle size, is applicable to estimating pollen particle size distribution and column number density.