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NASA NTRS · 20140011272

Radiative Transfer Theory Verified by Controlled Laboratory Experiments

Mishchenko, Michael I.·Goldstein, Dennis H.·Chowdhary, Jacek·Lompado, Arthur
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Abstract

We report the results of high-accuracy controlled laboratory measurements of the Stokes reflection matrix for suspensions of submicrometer-sized latex particles in water and compare them with the results of a numerically exact computer solution of the vector radiative transfer equation (VRTE). The quantitative performance of the VRTE is monitored by increasing the volume packing density of the latex particles from 2 to 10. Our results indicate that the VRTE can be applied safely to random particulate media with packing densities up to 2. VRTE results for packing densities of the order of 5 should be taken with caution, whereas the polarized bidirectional reflectivity of suspensions with larger packing densities cannot be accurately predicted. We demonstrate that a simple modification of the phase matrix entering the VRTE based on the so-called static structure factor can be a promising remedy that deserves further examination.

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Mishchenko, Michael I., Goldstein, Dennis H., Chowdhary, Jacek, Lompado, Arthur. 2013-09-15. Radiative Transfer Theory Verified by Controlled Laboratory Experiments. https://ntrs.nasa.gov/citations/20140011272

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