Classical Scattering and the Hanle Effect

Abstract

Derivation of the scattering emission vector to be used in the Stokes transfer equation requires integration over all the angles of incidence, which implies that we make a superposition of many scattering events. As the different scattering events are stochastically independent of each other, without any preferred phase relations between them, the superposition is incoherent. Still this incoherent superposition applies to the treatment of coherent scattering, since the coherence is between the three oscillating dipole components (in the classical description) within each single scattering event. This coherence is fully described by the Jones matrix for a single scattering process, which was derived in Chapter 3 and given by Eqs. (3.84), (3.85), and (3.88).