Light Scattering by Nonspherical Particles: Theory, Measurements, and Applications

Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society, May 2000
"The book will be of interest to a wide variety of geophysicists (and astronomers) working with scattering problems."


Review
"an excellent survey that will enormously benefit novice and non-specialist researchers and constitute a useful reference source for experienced specialist researchers." Optik: International Journal of Light and Electron Optics


Review
"an excellent survey that will enormously benefit novice and non-specialist researchers and constitute a useful reference source for experienced specialist researchers." Optik: International Journal of Light and Electron Optics


Book Description
There is hardly a field of science or engineering that does not have some interest in light scattering by small particles. For example, this subject is important to climatology because the energy budget for the Earth's atmosphere is strongly affected by scattering of solar radiation by cloud and aerosol particles, and the whole discipline of remote sensing relies largely on analyzing the parameters of radiation scattered by aerosols, clouds, and precipitation. The scattering of light by spherical particles can be easily computed using the conventional Mie theory. However, most small solid particles encountered in natural and laboratory conditions have nonspherical shapes. Examples are soot and mineral aerosols, cirrus cloud particles, snow and frost crystals, ocean hydrosols, interplanetary and cometary dust grains, and microorganisms. It is now well known that scattering properties of nonspherical particles can differ dramatically from those of "equivalent" (e.g., equal-volume or equal-surface-area) spheres. Therefore, the ability to accurately compute or measure light scattering by nonspherical particles in order to clearly understand the effects of particle nonsphericity on light scattering is very important.
The rapid improvement of computers and experimental techniques over the past 20 years and the development of efficient numerical approaches have resulted in major advances in this field which have not been systematically summarized. Because of the universal importance of electromagnetic scattering by nonspherical particles, papers on different aspects of this subject are scattered over dozens of diverse research and engineering journals. Often experts in one discipline (e.g., biology) are unaware of potentially useful results obtained in another discipline (e.g., antennas and propagation). This leads to an inefficient use of the accumulated knowledge and unnecessary redundancy in research activities.
This book offers the first systematic and unified discussion of light scattering by nonspherical particles and its practical applications and represents the state-of-the-art of this important
research field. Individual chapters are written by leading experts in respective areas and cover three major disciplines: theoretical and numerical techniques, laboratory measurements, and practical applications. An overview chapter provides a concise general introduction to the subject of nonspherical scattering and should be especially useful to beginners and those interested in fast practical applications. The audience for this book will include graduate students, scientists, and engineers working on specific aspects of electromagnetic scattering by small particles and its applications in remote sensing, geophysics, astrophysics, biomedical optics, and optical engineering.

* The first systematic and comprehensive treatment of electromagnetic scattering by nonspherical particles and its applications
* Individual chapters are written by leading experts in respective areas
* Includes a survey of all the relevant literature scattered over dozens of basic and applied research journals
* Consistent use of unified definitions and notation makes the book a coherent volume
* An overview chapter provides a concise general introduction to the subject of light scattering by nonspherical particles
* Theoretical chapters describe specific easy-to-use computer codes publicly available on the World Wide Web
* Extensively illustrated with over 200 figures, 4 in color


Book Info
Features up-to-date theoretical and numerical techniques, advances in laboratory measurements, and discussions of practical applications to various fields of geophysics. Presents the first systematic volume on light scattering by nonspherical particles and its practical application.


From the Back Cover
The universal importance of electromagnetic scattering combined with recent developments in efficient numerical algorithms and experimental techniques are helping to expand the scope and utility of using particle scattering as a research tool in astrophysics, atmospheric physics, biology, biomedical optics, optical engineering, oceanography, planetary and space physics, radar meteorology, and remote sensing.

Light Scattering by Nonspherical Particles: Theory, Measurements, and Applications is the first systematic volume on light scattering by nonspherical particles and its practical applications. This comprehensive and unified volume features up-to-date theoretical and numerical techniques, advances in laboratory measurements, and discussions of practical applications to various fields of science and engineering.


About the Author
Affiliations:
Michael I. Mishchenko - NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies
Joachim W. Hovenier - Free University and University of Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Larry D. Travis - NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, New York


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Measuring light and other electromagnetic radiation that has been scattered by small particles is becoming increasingly important in the various specialties of geophysics. Here the focus is on the different calculations when the scattering particles are odd shapes, as is the case with mineral and soot aerosols, cirrus cloud and contrail particles with asymmetrically located inclusions, hydrometers, snow and frost, ocean hydrosols, planetary and cometary surfaces, biological microorganisms, and other phenomena. The 128 review articles are from talks at a September 1998 NASA conference in New York. They cover theoretical and numerical techniques; compounded, heterogeneous, and irregular particles; laboratory measurements; and applications. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)


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