Many natural and biological media vary randomly in time and space. The examples are terrestrial atmosphere and ocean, biological liquids and tissues to name but a few. The main purpose of Springer Series in Light Scattering is to present recent advances in studies of light propagation, scattering, emission and absorption in random media. The topic is very broad and incorporates such diverse areas as atmospheric optics, ocean optics, optics of close-packed media, radiative transfer, light scattering, absorption, and scattering by single scatterers as well as by systems of particles, biomedical optics, optical properties of cosmic dust, remote sensing of atmosphere and ocean, etc. This branch of optical physics is of importance for material science, environmental science, climate change, and also for optical engineering. Although main developments in the solutions of radiative transfer and random media optics problems have been achieved in the 20th century by efforts of many scientists including V. Ambartsumian, S. Chandrasekhar, P. Debye, H. C. van de Hulst, G. Mie, and V. Sobolev, the optics of random media still present many puzzles to be solved such as radiative transfer in closely packed media, 3D radiative transfer as applied to the solution of inverse problems, optics of terrestrial and planetary surfaces, etc. It also has a broad range of applications in many fields of modern science and technology such as biomedical optics, atmospheric and oceanic optics, and astrophysics. The Series raises novel scientific questions, integrates data analysis, and offers new insights in optics of light scattering media.

Autorentext
Alexander Kokhanovsky graduated in 1983 in Theoretical Physics (The Department of Physics, Belarusian State University, Minsk, Belarus): the main topics of his thesis was the solution of the vector radiative transfer equation for the case of chiral light scattering media. Particular attention was given to the study of the properties of radiation in deep layers of a turbid medium under study. The phase and extinction matrices have been calculated using the Maxwell theory for chiral spheres. In 1983, Dr. Kokhanovsky joined the Laboratory of Light Scattering Media of the Institute of Physics of National Academy of Sciences of Belarus as a Junior Research Scientist. In 1986, he started a Ph.D. course in Optics at the Institute of Physics (National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk, Belarus). During the Ph.D., his focus rapidly moved to studies of Atmospheric Optics, in particular to the investigation of atmospheric aerosol and clouds using optical methods. As aPh.D. student he was responsible for several projects related to studies of light propagation and image transfer through atmosphere and ocean. The optical properties of whitecaps have been studied as well.

In December 1991, he was awarded the Ph.D. degree in Optics for the thesis Optical Properties of Atmospheric Aerosols and Foams. Simple analytical equations have been proposed for radiative characteristics of coarse-mode aerosols, water clouds, and foams in terms of the parameters of microstructure such as size distribution, shape, internal structure, and chemical composition of scatterers. After the Ph.D. defense Dr. Kokhanovsky has focused his research on the development of fast algorithms to retrieve cloud properties using satellite observations. He also studied several inverse problems of light scattering media optics including the diffuse-wave spectroscopy and laser diffraction spectrometry. In 1994, Dr. Kokhanovsky was awarded the Science and Technology Agencyof Japan Fellowship to work at the National Space Development Agency (NASDA) of Japan on cloud remote sensing. He spent one year (1996) in Tokyo (Earth Observation Research Center) working in the group of Prof. Teruyuki Nakajima in the area of cloud and snow remote sensing using spaceborne observations (GLI/ADEOS). Afterwards he was awarded the Alexander von Humboldt Fellowship (Clausthal University, Clausthal-Zellerfeld, Germany, 1998) and Engineering and Physical Sciences Research Council Fellowship (Imperial College London, UK, 1999), where he developed novel techniques to derive properties (e.g., particle size distribution) of light scattering particles using small-angle and polarimetric optical measurements. Also, the tensor radiative transfer equation was derived. This equation has been proved to be useful in studies of light propagation in anisotropic media.

In March 2001, he joined the Institute of Environmental Physics (Bremen University, Bremen, Germany), where he was responsible for the development of cloud, snow, and aerosol retrieval algorithms for MERIS, AATSR, and SCIAMACHY on board ENVISAT. A number of papers related to the generation and analysis of L2 aerosol, snow, and cloud products were published. Dr. Kokhanovsky participated and took a lead in several ESA, DFG, BMBF, and ESF projects. Also, he has published three books during this period of time. From October 2013, Dr. Kokhanovsky has been carrying on his research work at VITROCISET and EUMETSAT (Darmstadt, Germany). The main subject of his research is the development of L2 aerosol and cloud retrieval algorithms for the Multi-viewing Multi-channel and Multi-polarization Imager (3MI) on board future Eumetsat Polar System Second Generation (EPS-SG).

Zusammenfassung
This book presents recent advances in studies of light propagation, scattering, emission and absorption in random media. Many natural and biological media vary randomly in time and space. Examples are terrestrial atmosphere and ocean, biological liquids and tissues to name but a few.

Inhalt
Invariant imbedding theory for the vector radiative transfer equation.- Multiple scattering of light in ordered particulate media.- Fast stochastic radiative transfer models for trace gas and cloud property retrievals under cloudy conditions.- Neural networks and support vector maschines and their application to aerosol and cloud remote sensing: a review.- Stereogrammetric shapes of mineral dust particles.