Fractal morphology of black carbon aerosol enhances absorption in the thermal infrared wavelengths

In this Letter, we numerically calculate the mass absorption cross sections (MACs) of black carbon fractal aggregates in the thermal infrared solar spectrum. Compared to equivalent-size spheres, the MAC values of aggregates show a percent enhancement of≈150 and 400 at small and large length scales, respectively. The absorption properties of aggregates with size parameters >1 surprisingly continued to remain in the Rayleigh optics regime. We explain this phenomenon using the Maxwell-Garnett effective medium theory and the concept of phase shift parameter.