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We summarize the size parameter range of the applicability of four lightscattering computational methods for nonspheric dielectric particles. These methods include two exact methods - the extended boundary condition method (EBCM) and the invariant imbedding T-matrix method (II-TM) and two approximate approaches - the physical-geometric optics method (PGOM) and the improved geometric optics method (IGOM). For spheroids, the single-scattering properties computed by EBCM and II-TM agree for size parameters up to 150, and the comparison gives us confidence in using IITM as a benchmark for size parameters up to 150 for other geometries (e.g., hexagonal columns) because the applicability of II-TM with respect to particle shape is generic, as demonstrated in our previous studies involving a complex aggregate. This study demonstrates the convergence of the exact II-TM and approximate PGOM solutions for the complete set of single-scattering properties of a nonspherical shape other than spheroids and circular cylinders with particle sizes of ~48λ, specifically a hexagonal column with a size parameter of length as kL=300, where k=2π/λ and L is the column length. IGOM is also quite accurate except near the exact 180o backscattering direction. This study demonstrates that a synergetic combination of the numerically-exact II-TM and the approximate PGOM can seamlessly cover the entire size parameter range of practical interest. To demonstrate the applicability of the approach, we compute the optical properties of dust particles with a downstream application to the retrieval of dust aerosol optical thickness and effective particle size from polarimetric observations.

The presence of multiple zonal fronts in the Antarctic Circumpolar Current (ACC), a phenomenon described as zonation, has been confirmed by many observations suggesting that the fronts are circumpolar in extent. In the context of quasigeostrophic turbulence models, Panetta has shown that fronts associated with long-lived zonal jets develop spontaneously in very wide baroclinically unstable regions (of width large compared with the Rossby radius of deformation). The present paper examines the relevance of this mechanism to the zonation of the ACC, using a quasigeostrophic wind-forced channel model. Multiple jets appear when the forcing scale is wide enough. and they have horizontal scales and a strength that compares well with observations. However, in the presence of large-scale random topography, a different dynamical regime emerges in which the flow structure depends on the topographically controlled stationary eddies.