Scattering from nonspherical Chebyshev particles. 2: Means of angular scattering patterns
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Updated: Jun 12, 2026

Scattering And Absorption of Light in Planetary Regoliths
Published on: July 1, 2019
Abstract:
The calculated angular scattering properties of over 250 randomly oriented nonspherical Chebyshev particles are examined for the effect of three factors: size; concavity vs convexity; and amount of deformation from a sphere. Both shape and size averaging are performed to reveal general features of the angular scattering not discernible for particular shapes and sizes. Comparisons with a comparably extensive experimental study published by Zerull in 1976 reveal remarkable qualitative similarities, even though Zerull used greatly different shapes from ours. This augurs well for the eventual development of a general theory of nonspherical scattering, although such a theory must account for concavity in addition to the amount of deviation from a sphere; and it cannot be entirely deterministic, as the third paper in this series will argue.
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