Abstract

A treatment of the phase function in the radiative transfer equation is discussed for describing optical wave propagation in discrete random media with large particles. Unlike the conventional small-angle approximation, the phase function is normalized so that half of the scattered power is removed from a small angle in the forward direction for large particles with the refractive index not close to unity. With this normalization, an improved small-angle solution of the radiative transfer equation is given for the phase function adopted here. The validity of the proposed theory is confirmed by comparisons with both numerical solutions and experimental data on the attenuation of millimeter and optical waves in rain.

© 1993 Optical Society of America

Approximate solutions of the vector radiative transfer equation for linearly polarized light in discrete random media

Shigeo Ito and Tomohiro Oguchi
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 6(12) 1852-1858 (1989)

Diffusion of collimated, narrow beam waves in discrete random media

Shigeo Ito
Appl. Opt. 34(30) 7106-7112 (1995)

Multicomponent approach to light propagation in clouds and mists

Eleanor P. Zege, losif L. Katsev, and Igor N. Polonsky
Appl. Opt. 32(15) 2803-2812 (1993)

Scattered intensity of a wave propagating in a discrete random medium

Yushieh Ma, Vasundara V. Varadan, and Vijay K. Varadan
Appl. Opt. 27(12) 2469-2477 (1988)

Comparison of diffusion theories for optical pulse waves propagated in discrete random media

Shigeo Ito
J. Opt. Soc. Am. A 1(5) 502-505 (1984)