Michael Kahnert will hold a lecture entitled "Light scattering by particles: theory and applications in geoscience and astronomy".

Abstract

Light scattering by particles plays a fundamental role in atmospheric radiative transfer, which is important for interpreting Earth-observation data and for understanding radiative forcing of the climate system. Further, observations of scattering, extinction, and polarization of light is often the only source of information we have on small Solar-system particles and on dust in the galactic environment. Many types of aerosols and hydrometeors in planetary atmospheres as well as cosmic dust in the interplanetary and interstellar medium are morphologically complex and chemically heterogeneous particles. Developing numerical tools for modelling the optical properties of such particles is an active field of cross-disciplinary research. Aggregation, inhomogeneous chemical mixing, and small-scale surface roughness are among the most challenging morphological features that can profoundly modlulate the optical and radiative properties of aerosols and cosmic dust particles. This lecture will provide a general overview of light scattering applications in remote sensing, climate research, and astronomy, introduce the main concepts of the underlying theory, and discuss some illustrative and challenging current research topics.