Light Scattering Induced by Turbulent Flow: A Numerical Study.

Abstract

The direct numerical simulations of the temperature field in water were used to investigate light scattering caused by turbulent temperature inhomogeneities and to compare it with scattering caused by typical seawater particulates in two extreme cases: coastal and open ocean conditions. The particle contribution was simulated using Mie theory aided by theoretical considerations to describe scattering at small angles. Distributions of particles observed in an open ocean and a coastal environment were used. For the open ocean case study, we have assessed typical oceanic turbulence levels for the near-surface. We find that scattering due to simulated turbulence may dominate scattering due to particulates for small angles up to 10 degrees. In the coastal ocean case, simulated turbulence may dominate scattering up to 5 degrees. We have found that the scattering angle variance for a light beam propagating over O.25m pathlength in the oceanic water can be as large as 0.1 degrees.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1997
Accession Number
ADA320777

Entities

People

  • J. Andrzej Domaradzki

Organizations

  • University of Southern California

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Energy and Power Technologies

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Boundary Layer
  • Diffraction
  • Fluid Dynamics
  • Fluid Flow
  • Fluid Mechanics
  • Light Scattering
  • Mechanics
  • Particles
  • Reynolds Number
  • Scattering
  • Stratified Fluids
  • Temperature Gradients
  • Three Dimensional
  • Turbulence
  • Turbulent Flow
  • Turbulent Mixing
  • Two Dimensional

Fields of Study

  • Environmental science
  • Physics

Readers

  • Acoustical Oceanography.
  • Aerosol Science/Aerosol Physics
  • Ocean-Atmosphere Mesoscale Modeling, Data Assimilation, and Flux Boundary Layers