Scattering, Absorption, and Emission of Light by Small Particles

This thorough and up-to-date treatment first introduces the general formalism of scattering, absorption, and emission of light and other electromagnetic radiation by arbitrarily shaped and arbitrarily oriented particles. It then discusses the relation of the radiative transfer theory to single-scattering solutions of Maxwell's equations and describes in detail exact theoretical methods and computer codes for calculating scattering, absorption, and emission properties of arbitrarily shaped particles. Further chapters demonstrate how scattering and absorption characteristics of small particles depend on particle size, refractive index, shape, and orientation. The work illustrates how the high efficiency and accuracy of existing theoretical and experimental techniques, and the availability of fast scientific workstations, result in advanced physically-based applications of electromagnetic scattering to non-invasive particle characterization and remote sensing. This book will be valuable for science professionals, engineers and graduate students in a wide range of disciplines including optics, electromagnetics, remote sensing, climate research, and biomedicine.

Michael Mishchenko is a Physical Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies in New York. He gained his PhD in Physics at the Ukrainian National Academy of Sciences in 1987, and has since been Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on several NASA projects and has served as Topical Editor and Editorial Board Member of several leading scientific journals. His research interests include electromagnetic scattering, radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres and surfaces, and remote sensing.

Larry Travis is presently Associate Chief of the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies. He gained his PhD in Astronomy at Pennsylvania State University in 1971. He has acted as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator on several NASA projects, and was awarded a NASA Exceptional Scientific Achievement Medal. His research interests include theoretical interpretation of remote sensing measurements of polarization, planetary atmospheres, atmospheric dynamics, and radiative transfer.

Andrew Lacis is a Physical Scientist at the NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, and teaches radiative transfer at Colombia University. He gained his PhD in Physics at the University of Iowa in 1970, and has acted as Principal Investigator or Co-Investigator of several NASA and DOE projects. His research interests include radiative transfer in planetary atmospheres, absorption of solar radiation by the Earth's atmosphere, and climate modelling.