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Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology pp 1–5Cite as

Umov Effect

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Synonyms

Umov’s law

Definition

When light is scattered off particles in a dusty surface or cloud, it becomes polarized. The more reflective (higher albedo) the dust particles, the lower the overall degree of polarization in the scattered light. This inverse relationship was first noted by Nikolay Umov and has accordingly become known as the “Umov effect.”

Introduction

When randomly polarized light is obliquely incident on particles in a dusty surface or layer, the scattered or reflected light becomes partially polarized to a degree that is dependent upon the viewing direction with respect to the incident light (phase angle) and, if the particles are irregularly shaped, their orientation. Since the geometry of the source-scatterer-observer light path is the same for all single-particle scattering events, this component of the light is polarized. For light scattering involving a large number of particles, the geometries are many and widely different, so that even though each scattering...

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References

  1. Merzbacher, E., Feagin, J.M., Wu, T.-H.: Superposition of the radiation from n independent sources and the probability of random flights. Am. J. Phys. 45, 964 (1977)

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  2. Umov, N.: Chromatische Depolarisation durch Lichtzerstreung. Phys. Z. 6, 674–676 (1905)

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  3. Zubko, E., Videen, G., Shkuratov, Y., Muinonen, K., Yamamoto, T.: The Umov effect for single irregularly shaped particles with sizes comparable with wavelength. Icarus. 212, 403–415 (2011)

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  4. Zubko, E., Videen, G., Subko, N., Shkuratov, Y.: The Umov effect in application to an optically thin two-component cloud of cosmic dust. Mon. Not. R. Astron. Soc. 477, 4866–4873 (2018)

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  5. Zverev, A.: The Umov Effect: space dust clouds and the mysteries of the universe – FEFU scientists are developing and methodology to calculate the ratio of dust and gas in the comas and tails of comets. Eur. Secur. (2018)

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. D.R.A.O, National Research Council, Penticton, BC, Canada

    Ken Tapping

Authors
  1. Ken Tapping
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Correspondence to Ken Tapping .

Editor information

Editors and Affiliations

  1. Color Science & Imaging Lab, North Carolina State Univ, Raleigh, NC, USA

    Renzo Shamey

Section Editor information

  1. National Research Council Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada

    Joanne Zwinkels

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Tapping, K. (2019). Umov Effect. In: Shamey, R. (eds) Encyclopedia of Color Science and Technology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_376-1

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-642-27851-8_376-1

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  • Publisher Name: Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-642-27851-8

  • eBook Packages: Springer Reference Physics and AstronomyReference Module Physical and Materials ScienceReference Module Chemistry, Materials and Physics

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