Disclaimer: This material is being kept online for historical purposes. Though accurate at the time of publication, it is no longer being updated. The page may contain broken links or outdated information, and parts may not function in current web browsers. Visit https://espo.nasa.gov for information about our current projects.

 

Notes Dependence of extinction cross-section on incident polarization state and...

Yang, P., M. Wendisch, L. Bi, G. W. Kattawar, M. Mishchenko, and Y. Hu (2011), Notes Dependence of extinction cross-section on incident polarization state and particle orientation, J. Quant. Spectrosc. Radiat. Transfer, 112, 2035-2039, doi:10.1016/j.jqsrt.2011.04.012.
Abstract: 

This note reports on the effects of the polarization state of an incident quasimonochromatic parallel beam of radiation and the orientation of a hexagonal ice particle with respect to the incident direction on the extinction process. When the incident beam is aligned with the six-fold rotational symmetry axis, the extinction is independent of the polarization state of the incident light. For other orientations, the extinction cross-section for linearly polarized light can be either larger or smaller than its counterpart for an unpolarized incident beam. Therefore, the attenuation of a quasimonochromatic radiation beam by an ice cloud depends on the polarization state of the beam if ice crystals within the cloud are not randomly oriented. Furthermore, a case study of the extinction of light by a quartz particle is also presented to illustrate the dependence of the extinction cross-section on the polarization state of the incident light.

PDF of Publication: 
Download from publisher's website.
Research Program: 
Radiation Science Program (RSP)