2013/07/18 by A. J. Brown, Adrian J. Brown, Brown, Adrian J.
Environmental Science · Physics and Astronomy · #Albedo (alchemy) #Astro and Planetary Science #Atmospheric aerosols and clouds #Atmospheric and Oceanic Physics (physics.ao-ph) #Computational physics #Earth and Planetary Astrophysics (astro-ph.EP) #Electromagnetic spectrum #FOS: Physical sciences #Light scattering #Maturity (psychological) #Mie scattering #Optics #Optics (physics.optics) #Physics #Planetary Science and Exploration #Political science #Rayleigh scattering #Scattering #Single-scattering albedo #Wavelength #astro-ph.EP #physics.ao-ph #physics.optics
paper · pdf · doi:10.48550/arxiv.1307.5096
28 pages, 6 figures
arxiv created 2013/07/18 · openalex publication_date 2013/07/18 · arxiv updated 2013/07/22 · openalex created_date 2016/06/24 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/28
Scattering by particles significantly smaller than the wavelength is an important physical process in the rocky bodies in our solar system and beyond. A number of observations of spectral bluing (referred to in those papers as "Rayleigh scattering") on planetary surfaces have been recently reported, however, the necessary mathematical modeling of this phenomenon has not yet achieved maturity. This paper is a first step to this effect, by examining the effect of grain size and optical index on the albedo of small conservative and absorbing particles as a function of wavelength. The basic conditions necessary for spectral bluing or reddening to be observed in real-world situations are identified. We find that any sufficiently monomodal size distribution of scattering particles will cause spectral bluing in some part of the EM spectrum regardless of its optical index.