Scattering : Scattering and Inverse Scattering in Pure and Applied

This series of two volumes brings the concept of scattering in widely different fields – all the way from Nuclear Physics, Atmospheric Sciences to Chemical Physics – into a unified framework. Most of the topics were classified according to the physical scales of the scattering process. This two volume series easily qualifies as the encyclopedia of scattering. There are six parts in this two volume book covering the topics of: (a) scattering of waves by macroscopic targets; (b) microscopic physics and chemical physics; (c) nuclear physics; (d) particle scattering; (e) scattering at extreme physical scales such as scattering by black holes; and (f) scattering in mathematical and nonphysical sciences. The editors have done a great job of bringing together the scattering concepts from widely varying disciplines into one book. According to the editors, the purpose of this book is not to develop a handbook of scattering theory, but to provide a survey of the state of the art. The goal is definitely met, and therefore this book is not meant for beginning learners of scattering theory. The first volume deals with most of the fundamentals in scattering. The book starts with formal definitions of ‘scattering’, the ‘forward problem’ and the ‘inverse problem’ that are again applicable to the wide disciplines covered in this book. The inverse problems of scattering theory have a lot of practical applications such as remote sensing. The intent of the editors is to focus on the inverse problems only to the extent that it serves to enhance the understanding of the scattering theory. The first few chapters deal with the introductory concepts needed to understand scattering by a target or continuous medium or complex surfaces. These are followed by the theories of acoustic and electromagnetic scattering for objects of arbitrary shapes and inhomogeneities (Chapters 1.2 through 1.6). Scattering related to the topics of radar, ultrasound medical devices, antennas and polarimetry are covered in these sections. These chapters also cover a survey of computational methods for solving Maxwell’s equations. The next set of chapters (1.71.8) cover the difficult topic of elastodynamic scattering that formulates problems related to seismology and seismic reflection, followed by a chapter (1.9) on scattering in oceans. One of the oldest topics of scattering principles, namely potential scattering, which describes the problems of ‘motion of bodies in gravity potential’ as well as ‘electrostatics’, is discussed next (chapters 2.1-2.2), followed by a discussion on inverse problems in this topic. Similar to electromagnetic scattering, light scattering is a topic that has generated a wide variety of applications and the concepts of light scattering are discussed in the next set of chapters (2.3-2.5). This chapter covers both the basic theory as well as the instrumentation required for spectroscopy. The subsequent chapters (2.6-4.3) in the book cover topics of atomic and molecular scattering, X-ray scattering, neutron scattering, electron diffraction and scattering as well as particle scattering in the field of particle physics. Then there is a big change in scale with a chapter (5.1) that deals with scattering on cosmic scales. The last set of chapters (6.1-6.3) revisits the mathematical foundations of scattering theory, with topics such as scattering and semigroup theory, scattering and number theory and scattering by a metric. From the summary above, it is obvious that this book covers a wide variety of topics. This review has a specific focus, namely the ‘significance of this book to the discipline of Atmospheric Sciences’. For atmospheric scientists, this is a good reference book on scattering theory. The book has an extensive amount of mathematical description of scattering theory in each chapter. For example, vector spherical harmonics that are useful to describe the scattering of electromagnetic waves by hydrometeors are described in the section on theoretical tools. Sections relevant to Atmospheric Science exist at various places throughout the two-volume book. While there is a separate section on scattering in the atmosphere, that section primarily deals with molecular scattering, aerosol scattering, scattering from clouds and lidar sensing. The other important part of atmospheric scattering (scattering by precipitating particles) is covered in a variety of sections such as those describing radars and polarimetry in wave scattering applications. Acoustic and elastic scattering as well as scattering in oceans are discussed in separate sections each. Rayleigh scattering appears throughout the book in various contexts, and the specific mathematical background is discussed in the section on low-frequency scattering. In addition, the fundamentals of scattering by dielectric objects such as raindrops, including Mie scattering, are discussed in the chapter on specific theoretical tools, as well as scattering by obstacles. Aust. Met. Mag. 51 (2002) 197-201