Insights Into Particle Morphology From the Autocorrelation Function of Two-Dimensional Angular Optical Scattering (TAOS) Patterns

Angularly-resolved scattering patterns from non-spherical aerosol particles have complex features. Extracting particle morphology from these complex patterns seems like an intractable problem. Analysis techniques that reduce the complexity of these patterns into a simpler subspace are needed. To this end, we explore the use of autocorrelation and calculate the two-dimensional autocorrelation functions from the scattering patterns of over 30,000 individual aerosols. Features of the autocorrelation function provide insight into particle shape and size. Utilizing these features, we are able to subdivide our patterns into groups based on shape and size. Finally, we explore how the aerosol phase function varies between these different morphology groups.