General scattering and absorbing media

IN PROGRESS

PlanarRad was designed for use with data corresponding to natural water bodies, however it can be used to model the light field or reflectance properties of homegenous slabs of any kind of media, as long as the following inputs are known at the wavelength to be modelled:

• The extinction coefficient (a.k.a. the attenuation coefficient, c, they are the same thing).
• The absorption coefficient, a.
• The refractive index of the media.
• The phase function, i.e. the angular probability of scattering when it occurs.

These concepts may be expressed in other ways that contain the required information. For example if you have a volume scattering function (VSF) and single scattering albedo. you can then calculate c, a and the phase function.