Related papers: Analytical ray-tracing in planetary atmospheres
Over large timescales, a terrestrial planet may be driven towards spin-orbit synchronous rotation by tidal forces. In this particular configuration, the planet exhibits permanent dayside and nightside, which may induce strong day-night…
When gravitational waves travel from their source to an observer, they interact with matter structures along their path, causing distinct deformations in their waveforms. In this study we introduce a novel theoretical framework for wave…
When coherent light interacts with an ordered lattice whose periodicity is comparable to its wavelength, constructive interference produces a diffraction pattern as in crystallography, where x-rays are employed to reveal atomic structures.…
One of the methods for studying the highest energy cosmic rays is to measure the fluorescence light emitted by the extensive air showers induced by them. To reconstruct a shower cascade curve from measurements of the number of photons…
The effects of telluric absorption on infrared spectra present a problem for the observer. Strong molecular absorptions from species whose concentrations vary with time can be particularly challenging to remove precisely. Yet removing these…
A technique is presented that automates the direction characterization of curvilinear features in multidimensional solar imaging data sets. It is an extension of the Rolling Hough Transform (RHT) technique presented by Clark, Peek, and…
Transparent composites that combine optical transmittance with mechanical performance are increasingly important for applications in optical devices, sustainable building materials, and photonic engineering. However, predicting light…
In this article, we extend our previously presented analytical formulas (Phys.Rev.D 109 (2024) 12, 124055) for describing light rays passing near or emitted in the vicinity of compact objects to a broader class of spherically symmetric,…
The wavelength dependent refraction of light in the atmosphere causes the chromatic dispersion of a target on the focal plane of an instrument. This is known as atmospheric dispersion, with one of the consequences being wavelength dependent…
Adaptive Optics is a prime example of how progress in observational astronomy can be driven by technological developments. At many observatories it is now considered to be part of a standard instrumentation suite, enabling ground-based…
Light beams carrying orbital angular momentum are key resources in modern photonics. In many applications, the ability of measuring the complex spectrum of structured light beams in terms of these fundamental modes is crucial. Here we…
Modeling the wave nature of light and the propagation and diffraction of electromagnetic fields is crucial for the accurate simulation of many phenomena, yet wave simulations are significantly more computationally complex than classical…
We develop the spacetime approach to gravitational lensing by spherically symmetric perturbations of flat, cosmological constant-dominated Friedman-Robertson-Walker metrics. The geodesics of the spacetime are expressed as integral…
This paper describes a package for analytical ray tracing of relatively simple optical systems. AESOP (An Extensible Symbolic Optics Package) enables analysis of the effects of small optical element misalignments or other perturbations. (It…
Understanding reflectance-related quantities for worlds enables effective comparative planetology and strengthens mission planning and execution. Measurements of these properties for Earth, especially its geometric albedo and phase…
The search for Earth-like exoplanets requires high-contrast and high-angular resolution instruments, which designs can be very complex: they need an adaptive optics system to compensate for the effect of the atmospheric turbulence on image…
Circular photon orbits have become an attractive topic in recent years. They play extremely important roles in black hole shadows, gravitational lensings, quasi-normal modes, and spacetime topological properties. In our recent work,…
The disk-integrated reflected brightness of an exoplanet changes as a function of time due to orbital and rotational motion coupled with an inhomogeneous albedo map. We have previously derived analytic reflected lightcurves for spherical…
The physical world consists of spatially varying media, such as the atmosphere and the ocean, in which light and sound propagates along non-linear trajectories. This presents a challenge to existing ray-tracing based methods, which are…
Simplified analytic methods are frequently used to model the light curves of supernovae and other energetic transients and to extract physical quantities, such as the ejecta mass and amount of radioactive heating. The applicability and…