Accurate stratospheric particle size distributions from two separate flat-plate collection surfaces

Over the past two decades, flat-plate particle collections have revealed the presence of a remarkable variety of both terrestrial and extraterrestrial material in the stratosphere [1-6]. The ratio of terrestrial to extraterrestrial material and the nature of material collected may vary over observable time scales. Variations in particle number density can be important since the earth’s atmospheric radiation balance, and therefore the earth’s climate, can be influenced by articulate absorption and scattering of radiation from the sun and earth [7-9]. In order to assess the number density of solid particles in the stratosphere, we have examined a representative fraction of the so1id particles from two flat-plate collection surfaces, whose collection dates are separated in time by 5 years.