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Updated: Jul 4, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Multiple scattering by particles embedded in an absorbing medium. 1. Foldy-Lax equations, order-of-scattering
1NASA Goddard Institute for Space Studies, 2880 Broadway, New York, NY 10025, USA. mmishchenko@giss.nasa.gov
Abstract:
This paper presents a systematic analysis of the problem of multiple scattering by a finite group of arbitrarily sized, shaped, and oriented particles embedded in an absorbing, homogeneous, isotropic, and unbounded medium. The volume integral equation is used to derive generalized Foldy-Lax equations and their order-of-scattering form. The far-field version of the Foldy-Lax equations is used to derive the transport equation for the so-called coherent field generated by a large group of sparsely, randomly, and uniformly distributed particles. The differences between the generalized equations and their counterparts describing multiple scattering by particles embedded in a non-absorbing medium are highlighted and discussed.
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