Applications: Aggregated Spheres, Layered Spheres, and Spheres Containing Inclusions

Abstract

The theory developed so far is suitable to investigate the optical properties both of single particles and of dispersions of particles that are of interest in several fields of physics. With the proviso that careful tests are necessary to verify the adequacy of the model in the sense explained in Sect. 1.1, aggregates of spheres may be suitable to model the nonspherical particles of atmospheric aerosols and the ice crystals that occur in the high atmosphere, as well as the cosmic dust grains that are of interest in astrophysics. In turn, spheres containing one or more spherical inclusions may be used to approximate the scattering properties of biological cells or of water droplets containing pollutants, but also to approximate the properties of the porous and fluffy particles that occur in the cosmic dust. Therefore we felt it convenient to devote the present and the next chapter to discussing applications of the theory developed so far with the purpose of highlighting the scattering features of the model particles, either in free space or in the presence of a plane surface. While the applications we present in this chapter can be easily specialized to atmospheric physics or to astrophysics, Chaps. 8 and 9 are specifically addressed to the study of the atmospheric ice crystals and of the cosmic dust, respectively.