We have carried out a series of Mie scattering calculations to define the wavelength‐dependent, single scattering properties of aerosols present in the stratosphere during July 1979. Additional radiative transfer computations were conducted to assess the impact of aerosols on Earth’s radiation budget. For these purposes, we employed an extensive set of measurements of aerosol characteristics that were obtained in Alaska from aircraft and satellite platforms. At that time, the optical depth was too small for aerosols to significantly impact Earth’s climate. But the optical depth of the stratospheric aerosol layer has been large enough during some volcanically perturbed periods for the aerosols to have caused a noticeable warming of the stratosphere and cooling of the tropos