Abstract
Solar light scattering from atmospheric layers is perceived by an observer as the background sky. The shape of this background is built in the observer s eyes by the visibility distances in all slant directions. In an average day the atmosphere has a turbidity value in the vicinity of 2 implying that the average contribution to the scattered light by the air molecules is approximately equal to the scattering by the spherical and non spherical particles in the atmosphere. Since the atmospheric air density and the particulate number density in the horizontal direction are both assumed to be constant whereas their values decreases in a slant direction, the resulting varying visibility distances in the various directions are shown to form a flat sky shape. The multiple scattering calculations are based on scattering functions for spherical and non-spherical particles. The basic approach which is used to handle the scattering of non-spherical particles, is discussed in part II of this presentation.
Original language | English |
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Pages (from-to) | 50-57 |
Number of pages | 8 |
Journal | Proceedings of SPIE - The International Society for Optical Engineering |
Volume | 5059 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - 3 Apr 2003 |
Event | 12th International Workshop on Lidar Multiple Scattering Experiments 2002 - Oberpfaffenhofen, Germany Duration: 10 Sep 2002 → 12 Sep 2002 |
Bibliographical note
Publisher Copyright:© 2003 SPIE. All rights reserved.
Keywords
- Light scattering
- Moon illusion
- Multiple scattering
- Scattering by non-spherical particles
- The sky