Optics of the Moon

Professor Yuriy Shkuratov is Professor and Department Head for the Astronomy Department at Kharkov National University. He was also the Director of the Astronomical Institute of V.N. Karazin Kharkov National University from 2004-2014. He is the Leading Research Scientist at the Institute of Radio Astronomy of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine. He has more than 700 scientific publications devoted to the investigation of optical properties of solid surfaces of celestial bodies and arbitrary shaped particles. These works include chapters for seven collective monographs. He first obtained images of polarimetric anomalies of the Moon at large phase angles. He has performed numerous laboratory photometric and polarimetric measurements of structure analogs of the lunar regolith, which provide a reliable experimental basis for the verification and selection of theoretical models for the opposition effect and negative polarization. Professor Shkuratov has contributed theoretical models of light scattering by particles and surfaces with complicated structure. In particular, he first proposed the model of negative polarization based on the mechanism of coherent backscatter enhancement. Dr. Gordon Videen is a physicist for the Army Research Laboratory. He has also been a Program Manager in Atmospheric Science at the Army Research Laboratory and been a Visiting Scientist at the University of Amsterdam. Dr. Videen has performed experimental, theoretical, and modeling work investigating remote sensing of complex systems ranging from atmospheric aerosols and cometary comae to extended regolith systems. Many of these works have focused on obtaining information from the polarization and light-scattering properties of the systems. This research has culminated in more than 250 peer-reviewed scientific journal articles, eighteen book chapters, as well as 11 co-edited books and 14 special journal issues, 10 international scientific conferences and workshops, and 15 patents. Dr. Vadym Kaydash is the Senior Research Scientist and the Director of the Astronomical Institute of V.N. Karazin Kharkov National University. His research includes analysis and interpretation of Hubble Space Telescope imaging polarimetry of Martian atmospheric aerosols, photometric anomalies of the lunar surface using data of SMART-1 lunar mission, and mapping the photometric function variations and the polarization parameters for the nearside of the Moon by telescopic data.

1. Historical Outline
2. Definitions
3. Photometry
4. Modeling Light Scatter from Lunar-Like Surfaces
5. Polarimetry
6. Conclusion
7. Appendix 1: Gourmet Photometric Function
8. Appendix 2: Shadow Effect on Random Surfaces