ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS Madison Mariani MECHANISMS Reflection Refraction Scattering

ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS Madison Mariani

MECHANISMS Reflection Refraction Scattering Diffraction

NEWTON’S THEORY OF LIGHT • Geometric nature of laws of reflection/refraction could only be explained if light was made of particles (corpuscles) • Prism Experiment • Color wheel

HUYGENS-FRESNEL PRINCIPLE • The Wave Theory • Christiaan Huygens • Light is emitted in all directions as “luminiferous ether” • Not affected by gravity slow down in denser mediums • Augustin-Jean Fresnel • Expanded • Light was entirely transverse ( no wave components in direction of prepagation • Huygens-Fresnel Principle • Method of analyzing the wave propagation patters of light • Secondary spherical waves in all directions

PIERRE DE FERMAT • Fermat’s principle (principle of least time) • The path taken between two points by a ray of light is the path that can be traversed in the least time

WILLEBRORD SNELL • Law of Refraction or Snell’s Law • The ratio of sin(theta 1)/sin(theta 2) is the index of refraction • Should go from a perfect vacuum

CREPUSCULAR RAYS

SUNSETS

HALOS

SUNDOGS

LININGS AND IRIDESCENCE

RAINBOWS

WORKS CITED • http: //enlightenyourmind. net/History/huygens. html • http: //zonalandeducation. com/mstm/physics/light/ray. Optics/refraction/snell s. Law/snells. Law 1. html • http: //ww 2010. atmos. uiuc. edu/(Gh)/guides/mtr/opt/home. rxml • http: //www. thestargarden. co. uk/Newton. And. Light. html • http: //hyperphysics. phy-astr. gsu. edu/hbase/phyopt/fermat. html