Light Scattering by Irregularly Shaped Particles

This volume contains most of the invited papers presented at the International Workshop on Light Scattering by Irregularly Shaped Particles held on June 5-7, 1979. at the State University of New York at Albany (SUNYA). Over seventy participants representing many dis- ciplines convened to define some of the ever-increasing number of resonant light-scattering problems associated with particle shape and to relate their most recent investigations in this field. It is obvious from the two introductory papers that an investi- gator's primary discipline determines his/her approach to the light- scattering problem. The meteorologist, Diran Deirmendjian, advocates an empirical methodology: to model the scattering by atmospheric aerosols, using equivalent spheres as standards, in the most effi- cient and simplest manner that is consistent with remote sensing, in situ, and laboratory* data. Because of the almost infinite variety of particle shapes, he questions not only the possibility but even the usefulness of the exact solution of scattering by a totally arbitrary particle. The astrophysicist, J. Mayo Greenberg, is primarily concerned with the information content carried by the scattered light because this radiation is the sole clue to under- standing the nature of interstellar dust. What measurements (polar- ization, color dependence, etc *** ) should be made to best determine a given particle characteristic (size, surface roughness, refractive index, etc *** )? Thus, he considers the physics of the scattering process to be of paramount interest.