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The aerosol extinction measurements in the ultraviolet and visible wavelengths by the balloonborne spectrometer Spectroscopie d'Absorption Lunaire pour l'Observation des Minoritaires Ozone et [NO.sub.x] (SALOMON) show that aerosols are present in the middle stratosphere, above 25-km altitude. These observations are confirmed by the extinction measurements performed by a solar occultation radiometer. The balloonborne Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique (LMD) counter instrument also confirms the presence of aerosol around 30-km altitude, with an unrealistic excess of micronic particles assuming that only liquid sulfate aerosols are present. An unexpected spectral structure around 640-nm observed by SALOMON is also detectable in extinction measurements by the satellite instrument Stratospheric Aerosols and Gas Experiment III. This set of measurements could indicate that solid aerosols were detected at these altitude ranges. The amount of soot detected up to now in the lower stratosphere is too low to explain these measurements. Thus, the presence of interplanetary dust grains and micrometeorites may need to be invoked. Moreover, it seems that these grains fill the stratosphere in stratified layers. OCIS codes: 010.1110, 280.1100.

The physical properties of stratospheric aerosols can be retrieved from optical measurements involving extinction, radiance, polarization, and counting. We present here the results of measurements from the balloonborne instruments AMON, SALOMON, and RADIBAL, and from the French Laboratoire de Meteorologie Dynamique and the University of Wyoming balloonborne particle counters. A cross comparison of the measurements was made for observations of background aerosols conducted during the polar winters of February 1997 and January--February 2000 for various altitudes from 13 to 19 kin. On the one hand, the effective radius and the total amount of background aerosols derived from the various sets of data are similar and are in agreement with pre-Pinatubo values. On the other hand, strong discrepancies occur in the shapes of the bimodal size distributions obtained from analysis of the raw measurements of the various instruments. It seems then that the log-normal assumption cannot fully reproduce the size distribution of background aerosols. The effect of the presence of particular aerosols on the measurements is discussed, and a new strategy for observations is proposed. Society of America OCIS codes: 010.1100, 120.0280, 120.5820, 120.5410.

The presence of soot in the lower stratosphere was recently established by in situ measurements. To isolate their contribution to optical measurements from that of background aerosol, the soot's bulk optical properties must be determined. Laboratory measurements of extinction and polarization of randomly distributed soot were conducted. For all soot, measurements show a slight reddening extinction between 400 and 700 nm and exhibit a maximum of 100% polarization at a scattering angle of 75 [+ or -] 5 [degrees]. Such results cannot be reproduced by use of Mie theory assumptions. The different optical properties of soot and background stratospheric aerosol could allow isolation of soot in future analyses of stratospheric measurements. OCIS codes: 010.1100, 120.5410, 290.2200, 290.4020.