Highlights • Aerosol scattering simulated under variable microphysical properties (visible range). • Sensitivity of scattering to microphysical properties depends on particle mean size. • Scattering spectral dependence is slightly affected by microphysical assumptions. • Size distribution and real refractive index have strongest impact on scattering. • Comparison with source scattering observations constrained microphysical assumptions.

This work has been funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [grant: CGL2013-46736-R] and by the ACTRIS Research Infrastructure Project of the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [grant agreement: No. 654109]. Further support has been provided by the Severo Ochoa Program, awarded by the Spanish Government [grant: SEV-2011-00067]. This work was also supported by the MINECO (Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness), the MAGRAMA (Spanish Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Environment) and FEDER funds under the PRISMA project [grant: CGL2012-39623-C02/00]. Further fundings have been provided by the European Union's Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme [grant agreement: No. 654109]. Vincenzo Obiso is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [‘FPI-SO’ grant: SVP-2013-067953]. Marco Pandolfi is funded by the Spanish Ministry of Economy and Competitiveness [‘Ramón y Cajal’ grant: RYC-2013-14036]. We thank Noemi Pérez for providing the PM chemical speciated data for the Montseny station and the developers of the T-Matrix code for making it freely available.

Peer Reviewed