Abstract

The principal geometric features of most atmospheric optical phenomena such as rainbows and halos can be explained merely by finding the angular distribution of light scattered by single particles. If, however, we wish to ex plain the brightness features of the various phenomena, the single particle approach is not sufficient since they are produced by clouds or swaths of particles. Thus their bright ness is highly dependent on the optical depth of the clouds (Gedzelman, 1980, 1982).

© 1983 Optical Society of America