Calculation of Ice Crystal Diffraction

The diffraction angular distributions are calculated for different ice crystals (e. g. solid and hollow hexagonal columns, solid plates and single hexagonal bullet) randomly oriented in space, based on the theory of Cai and Liou. Results of solid column and plate are compared with these from formulas of Wendling et al. and Liou. The result comparison shows that all three procedures discussed in this paper have good agreement. After considering the com-putation time and comparison results, it is suggested that the formula of Wendling et al. can be used to calculate the solid column diffraction, and the formula of Liou can be used to calculate the plate diffraction. The comparison also shows that the diffraction results of solid column, hollow column and single bullet ice particles randomly oriented in space are very close.