Bleaching of a polydisperse aqueous aerosol

A numerical treatment is given of the problem of the passage of high-intensity λ = 10.6 μ, laser radiation through a polydisperse aerosol of water droplets. An analysis is made of the dependence of the steady-state velocity of a bleaching wave front in the aerosol on the initial temperature of the droplets, accommodation coefficient, laser radiation power density, and initial root-mean-cube droplet radius. The results obtained justify an approximate model of the bleaching process based on introduction of a characteristic time during which the volume aerosol attenuation coefficient changes by a factor e in a radiation field of constant intensity.