SEARCH · Search NASA

Results for “SCATTERING”

Search indexed NASA NTRS and DOE OSTI research on propulsion, heat transfer, battery materials and energy systems. Follow report and document links to the original sources.

SourceResearch connectionFrom yearThrough year

Quote a phrase for an exact phrase match. Source license links do not imply unrestricted reuse.

At least 145 records · Page 8

All sources NASA NTRS DOE OSTI

NASA NTRS1972

Light scattering by ice clouds in the visible and infrared - A theoretical study.

Computations of the intensity and linear polarization for single scattering by ice clouds have been made based on the assumption that the particles in ice clouds can be approximated by long circular cylinders which are allowed to be polydispersive as well as arbitrarily oriented in space. The results of two models of optically thin ice clouds are presented and compared with those for polydisperse ice spheres. The two models for ice cylinders are assumed to be either uniformly or randomly oriented in a horizontal plane. Four different wavelengths, 0.7, 3, 3.5 and 6.05 microns, are employed in the light scattering computations. It is found that, compared to ice spheres, long ice cylinders scatter more light in the region with scattering angles near 90 deg, at the expense of scattering in both the forward and backward directions. The glory and cloudbows, which occur in light scattered by spherical particles, are either lost (the glory) or largely reduced and distorted (the cloudbows in the case of cylinders). It is probable that for more irregular particles the cloudbows would also disappear. These differences in scattering by spherical and non-spherical scatterers therefore provide useful information for the differentiation between the ice and liquid phase of cloud particles.

Liou, K.-N.↗

NASA NTRS1972

The inverse problem for radiation scattering

A brief survey of recent theoretical progress on the inverse scattering problem for radiation scattering from reflective boundaries and variable indices of refraction. The theory of radiation scattering is concerned primarily with the far-field relations between incident and scattered radiation in the presence of a scattering object. The primary, or direct, problem of this theory is to develop quantitative information about these scattering relations from a knowledge of the scattering object. The secondary, or inverse, problem, on the other hand, is to determine the nature of the object from an analysis of the scattering relations.

Prosser, R. T.↗

NASA NTRS1976

Multiple scattered radiation emerging from Rayleigh and continental haze layers. I - Radiance, polarization, and neutral points

The matrix operator method was used to calculate the polarization of radiation scattered on layers of various optical thicknesses, with results compared for Rayleigh scattering and for scattering from a continental haze. In both cases, there are neutral points arising from the zeros of the polarization of single scattered photons at scattering angles of zero and 180 degrees. The angular position of these Rayleigh-like neutral points (RNP) in the sky shows appreciable variation with the optical thickness of the scattering layer for a Rayleigh phase matrix, but only a small variation for haze L phase matrix. Another type of neutral point exists for non-Rayleigh phase functions that is associated with the zeros of the polarization for single scattering which occurs between the end points of the curve. A comparison of radiances calculated from the complete theory of radiative transfer using Stokes vectors with those obtained from the scalar theory shows that differences of the order of 23% may be obtained for Rayleigh scattering, while the largest difference found for a haze L phase function was of the order of 0.1%.

Kattawar, G. W.↗

NASA NTRS1977

Comparison of finite source and plane wave scattering from corrugated surfaces

The choice of a plane wave to represent incident radiation in the analysis of scatter from corrugated surfaces was examined. The physical optics solution obtained for the scattered fields due to an incident plane wave was compared with the solution obtained when the incident radiation is produced by a source of finite size and finite distance from the surface. The two solutions are equivalent if the observer is in the far field of the scatterer and the distance from observer to scatterer is large compared to the radius of curvature at the scatter points, condition not easily satisfied with extended scatterers such as rough surfaces. In general, the two solutions have essential differences such as in the location of the scatter points and the dependence of the scattered fields on the surface properties. The implication of these differences to the definition of a meaningful radar cross section was examined.

Levine, D. M.↗

NASA NTRS1978

Raman scattering in the atmospheres of the major planets

A technique is developed to calculate the detailed effects of Raman scattering in an inhomogeneous anisotropically scattering atmosphere. The technique is applied to evaluations of Raman scattering by H2 in the atmosphere of the major planets. It is noted that Raman scattering produces an insufficient decrease in the blue and ultraviolet regions to explain the albedos of all planets investigated. For all major planets, the filling-in of solar line cores and the generation of the Raman-shifted ghosts of the Fraunhofer spectrum are observed. With regard to Uranus and Neptune, Raman scattering is seen to exert a major influence on the formation and profile of strong red and near infrared CH4 bands, and Raman scattering by H2 explains the residual intensity in the cores of these bands. Raman scattering by H2 must also be taken into account in the scattering of photons into the cores of saturated absorption bands.

Cochran, W. D.↗

NASA NTRS1979

A general and computationally fast formulation for radiative transfer with scattering

A general formulation of monocromatic radiative transfer with scattering has been developed for plane-parallel geometry. The inhomogeneous and nonisothermal medium absorbs, emits, and anisotropically scatters radiation. Surfaces can emit and scatter radiation in any specified manner. The solution procedure uses the fact that phase incoherent scattering is linear in radiative sources. Certain basic scattering functions are then defined and calculated by an adding computer code using matrix algebra. These scattering functions are weighted by the temperature field and summed (superimposed) to obtain the solution for any specific problem. Numerical results for exiting intensities and one-sided heat fluxes from general media bound by one arbitrary surface are presented. These parametric studies demonstrate the effects of scattering particles and surfaces on radiative transfer from inhomogeneous and nonisothermal media. Application of the formulation to radiative equilibrium is also discussed. The conclusion is that all problems in plane-parallel radiative transfer with scattering can be solved by a common and computationally fast algorithm based on this formulation.

Cogley, A. C.↗

NASA NTRS1981

Effective path length corrections in beam-beam scattering experiments

The effect of the change of scattering geometry with scattering angle in beam-beam experiments is investigated. Atomic (molecular) target distributions associated with static gas, orifice, tube, capillary array (with and without further collimation), and jet sources have been considered in model calculations for a number of commonly used electron scattering geometries. The relationship between scattering intensity, cross section, and the geometrical integral called 'effective path length' is derived. Volume correction factors (the reciprocal of effective path length) have been calculated for sample cases to illustrate the effect of various beam and scattering geometry characteristics. The validity of the model calculation has been experimentally verified. Most of the commonly used scattering geometries require significant correction of the scattering intensity distributions, but with proper planning scattering geometries can be designed such that the intensity and the cross section angular distribution are identical within 1%.

Brinkmann, R. T.↗

NASA NTRS1983

Investigation of superelastic electron scattering by laser-excited Ba - Experimental procedures and results

Differential (in angle) electron scattering experiments on laser-excited Ba-138 1P were carried out at 30- and 100-eV impact energies. The laser light was linearly polarized and located in the scattering plane. The superelastic scattering signal was measured as a function of polarization direction of the laser light with respect to the scattering plane. It was found at low electron scattering angles that the superelastic scattering signal was asymmetric to reflection of the polarization vector with respect to the scattering plane. This is in contradiction with theoretical predictions. An attempt was made to pinpoint the reason for this observation, and a detailed investigation of the influence of experimental conditions on the superelastic scattering was undertaken. No explanation for the asymmetry has as yet been found.

NASA NTRS1983

Effects of a rough boundary surface on polarization of the scattered field from an inhomogeneous medium

A combination of the standard Kirchhoff method for rough surface scattering with the Rayleigh phase function radiative transfer method for volume scattering is employed in the present study of the effect of surface roughness on the polarization of the scattered field. It is found that for pure surface scattering, the polarization ratio between zero and 20 deg incidence angles is sensitive to surface roughness change. When both surface and volume scattering are present, however, copolarization nulls by colatitude or degree of polarization at zero to 15 deg incidence angle, and copolarization or crosspolarization nulls by longitude at large incidence angles, are better indicators of surface roughness changes. It is noted that degree of polarization and copolarization nulls by colatitude vary monotonously with incidence angle, while in combined surface and volume scattering these have, respectively, a minimum and a maximum. This characteristic allows the separation of combined surface and volume scattering from pure surface or volume scattering.

Fung, A. K.↗

NASA NTRS1984

Scattering Models in the Microwave Regime

Scattering from an inhomogeneous layer with irregular boundaries was calculated to model natural terrain such as a layer of vegetation or sea ice. The inhomogeneities were modeled by spherical or disc-shaped discrete scatterers which were small compared with the incident wavelength and were in the far field of one another. It was found that the cross-polarized scattering was dominated by multiple scattering effects and was sensitive to the orientations and distributions of the scatterers. This model has been applied to interpret measurements from vegetation, snow and sea ice. The scattering model was extended to handle disc-shaped scatterers which are comparable to the incident wavelength. The model was used to investigate the relative merits between active versus passive sensing of soil moisture over vegetated terrain. Results indicate that scattering mesurements are more sensitive to soil moisture changes than emission measurements. This is because while both types of measurements lose sensitivity to soil moisture because of the vegetation layer, the loss is greater for passive than active measurements.

Fung, A. K.↗

NASA NTRS1987

An investigation of the forward scattering theorem

The calculation of an EM wave's extinction loss during propagation within an inhomogeneous medium, as in active and passive remote sensing modeling, can be undertaken either through the summation of the scattering and absorption losses or through the use of the forward scattering theorem. Attention is presently given to the similarities and differences of these two approaches as a function of dielectric properties of a spherical scatterer and the incident frequency. Scattering loss is obtainable by integrating the magnitude-squared of the scattered field over a spherical surface surrounding the scatterer; the scattered field and the field within the scatterer are computed according to Mie theory.

Karam, M. A.↗

NASA NTRS1991

Scattering of sound waves by a compressible vortex

Scattering of plane sound waves by a compressible vortex is investigated by direct computation of the two-dimensional Navier-Stokes equations. Nonreflecting boundary conditions are utilized, and their accuracy is established by comparing results on different sized domains. Scattered waves are directly measured from the computations. The resulting amplitude and directivity pattern of the scattered waves is discussed, and compared to various theoretical predictions. For compact vortices (zero circulation), the scattered waves directly computed are in good agreement with predictions based on an acoustic analogy. Strong scattering at about + or - 30 degrees from the direction of incident wave propagation is observed. Back scattering is an order of magnitude smaller than forward scattering. For vortices with finite circulation refraction of the sound by the mean flow field outside the vortex core is found to be important in determining the amplitude and directivity of the scattered wave field.

Colonius, Tim↗

NASA NTRS1992

Determining water cloud particle sizes from lidar depolarization measurements and time dependent multiple scattering coefficients

We present a technique of extracting water cloud particle size information from lidar measurements in conjunction with double scattering calculations. In this presentation, we describe the technique and give examples using data taken with the Air Force Phillips Laboratory's (Geophysics Directorate) low altitude Nd:YAG, elastic backscatter lidar. In a related presentation we describe the double scattering lidar model which we developed for this work. The technique uses simultaneous measurements of two orthogonal linear polarization components of lidar returns from water clouds or other media composed of spherical particles. Any depolarization of the incident lidar radiation backscattered by such a media can only be due to multiple scattering. The amount of depolarization is dependent on the extinction coefficient and the single scatter phase matrix, both of which are functions of position in the medium. The phase matrix is dependent on the index of refraction of the particles and the particle size distribution. Our technique is a modification of a procedure presented in Reference 1. There, particle sizes of water clouds are determined from double scattering calculations together with measurements of radiation scattered from volumes outside the lidar receiver's field of view (which can only be multiply scattered radiation). The methodology of our technique is similar but our 'probe' of the scattering phase function (and thus the particle size distribution) is different.

Garner, R. C.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Magnetized stimulated scattering in pulsar winds

The effects of stimulated scattering on a collimated high brightness temperature beam of photons traversing a relativistically streaming magnetized plasma are studied. Under the assumption that the center of the photon beam is parallel to the bulk motion, we calculate the scattering rate as a function of the angular spread of the beam and the Lorentz factor gamma. Magnetization changes the photon recoil, without which stimulated scattering has no effect. It also introduces a strong dependence on frequency and polarization: if the photon frequency matches the electron cyclotron frequency, the scattering rate of photons polarized perpendicular to the magnetic field can be substantially enhanced relative to Thomson, and if the photon frequency is much less than the cyclotron frequency, the scattering is suppressed. Applying these calculations to pulsars, we find that stimulated scattering of the radio beam in the magnetized wind believed to exist outside the light cylinder can substantially alter the spectrum and polarization state of the radio signal. We suggest that the scattering rate is so high in some pulsars that the ability of the radio signal to penetrate the pulsar magnetosphere requires modification of either the conventional model of the magnetosphere or assumptions about the effects of stimulated scattering upon a beam.

Sincell, Mark W.↗

NASA NTRS1992

Forward-scatter radiant mapping

Forward-scatter systems have been much neglected for the study of meteors and meteor streams. A great deal of this neglect stems from the complicated geometry which has made the interpretation of results difficult in the past. This no longer presents a problem because of the computer power now available. There are practical advantages in using forward-scatter in that low-power transmitters are much easier to handle than the high-power ones used in pulsed back-scatter radars. The data reduction of the CW signals is also significantly simpler. Because the forward-scatter reflection geometry increases the duration of the echoes relative to the back-scatter case, the problem of the underdense ceiling is partially alleviated. We have built a 'short hop' forward-scatter system between Ottawa and London (Ont) for which the transmitter and receiver are separated by about 500 km. With it, we are able to measure unambiguously the directions of arrival of the echoes using a 5-antenna interferometer. Morton and Jones (1982, MN, 198, 737) have shown how the echo direction distribution can be deconvolved to yield the meteor radiant distribution for back-scatter data. We have extended the technique to the forward-scatter case and present some preliminary meteor radiant distribution maps.

Jones, James↗

NASA NTRS1992

The effect of topography on radar scattering from vegetated areas

It is shown how radar scattering from vegetated areas is affected by the topography of the surface underneath the vegetation, and that by the use of a discrete scatterer model the dominant scattering mechanism may change drastically when the ground surface is tilted relative to the horizontal. In the case of a horizontal ground surface total scattering may be dominated by scattering off the tree trunks, followed by a reflection off the ground surface. It is shown that for a relatively small tilt in the ground surface the ground-trunk interaction term may be replaced by scattering from the branches alone as the dominant scattering mechanism. The effect of the topography is more pronounced for scattering by longer wavelengths. The implications for algorithms designed to infer forest woody biomass and soil and vegetation moisture using polarimetric synthetic aperture radar (SAR) data are discussed.

Van Zyl, Jakob J.↗

NASA NTRS1993

A test of the applicability of independent scattering to high albedo planetary regoliths

We show that 'independent scattering' is a useful approximation for high albedo particles whose size and packing density are similar to typical particles in the lunar regolith. Laboratory measurements of the intensity and linear polarization of light scattered from a laboratory sample of glass spheres of know size and composition are compared to radiative transfer calculations of the same observable quantities. Mie scattering is integrated over the size distribution of the particles to determine the mean phase and polarization functions, or phase matrix, of the particle. Assuming that the particles scatter independently, the 'doubling method' is used to rigorously calculate multiple scattering in an optically thick layer of these anisotropically scattering particles. All of the major features 'predicted' in the calculated intensity (double peaks at small phase angles) and polarization (negative branch at small phase angles, large positive peak near 20 degrees phase, and small polarization elsewhere) are observed in the laboratory measurements, with good quantitative agreement indicated at phase angles less than 90 degrees. Even though the particles are supported by physical contact with each other in the sample, as are the particles in planetary regoliths, the independent scattering calculation yields a good approximation to both the intensity and polarization. The physical parameters input to the calculation are only the size distribution of the particles and their complex index of refraction (composition). Significant advantages of this approach are that the phase matrix is calculated from basic physical principles and both the intensity and polarization are determined simultaneously. This model may have broad applications to the interpretation of photometry, spectroscopy, and polarimetry of the icy regoliths of high albedo satellites. The intent of this effort is to perform a controlled experiment that tests the utility of the independent scattering assumption

Goguen, J. D.↗

NASA NTRS1993

Measuring the dynamics of structural changes in biological macromolecules from light scattering data

Examining techniques to study the dynamics of structural changes in various molecules has been an ongoing goal of the space program. Knowing how these phenomena occur in biological systems is fundamental to understanding what is necessary for life to remain functional in the space environment. A hierarchy of biological organization is functionally described when cells join together small organic molecules to form larger and more complex molecules. Characterizing the architecture of a particular macromolecule helps determine how that molecule works in the living cell and is basic to the diversity of life. Understanding this arrangement involves the correlation of the structure of macromolecules with their functions. A light scattering photometer was developed for detecting continuous measurement of the angular spectrum of light scattered by dynamically changing systems. The analysis of light scattered by biological macromolecules can be used to determine concentration, size, shape, molecular weight, and structural changes of cells, such as erythrocytes. Some light scattering photometers can collect and store 120 angular scattering spectra per minute, with an angular resolution of 0.2 deg which can be displayed with computer graphics. The light scattering photometer does the following: functions to produce and detect scattered light; determines scatter angles; and collects, stores, and analyzes data.

Johnson, Adriel D.↗