- Email: [email protected]
Physical optics of ocean water
BOOK REVIEW Physical Optics of Ocean Water. By K. S. SHIFRIN. Translated by DAVID OLIVER. American Institute of Physics, Translation Series, 1988. 285 + vii. $64.00. This is a fascinating monograph which ranges from phenomenology quite specific to optical effects encountered in oceanography to the basic theory of light scattering by both molecular and particulate systems. It is based upon a course of lectures delivered at the Leningrad Institute of Hydrometeorology. The author must be an excellent teacher. The reader is transported through this broadly interdisciplinary subject in a logical, coherent, and clear manner. The level should be accessible to an upperclass undergraduate or a graduate student. The chapter titles indicate the topics: Hydrooptical characteristics, Factors determining the optical properties of ocean water, Molecular optics of ocean water, Scattering by suspended particles, Optical properties of real ocean water, and Inverse problems. The logic is inexorable. For example, experimental values of the absorption coet~cient are successively reviewed for steam, liquid water, saline solutions, "pure" ocean water, and ocean water containing suspended particles. The theory of molecular scattering
due to thermal fluctuations is followed by particle scattering theory. The latter includes Lorenz-Mie, Rayleigh-Debye, and physical optics treatments. Following this, actual spectral absorption and scattering coefficients of real samples are analyzed with the aid of these theoretical constants. Professor Shifrin has contributed most importantly to the inverse problem so it is not surprising that this subject figures importantly. The final chapter provides him with an opportunity to summarize and review his many contributions to this problem of estimating the particle size spectrum from absorption and scattering data. The culmination is his determination of the particle size distribution of various real oceanographic samples collected from various locales throughout the globe. The translation by David Oliver is quite smooth. The production by the American Institute of Physics is excellent. MILTON KERKER Department of Chemistry Clarkson University Potsdam, New York 13676
386 0021-9797/88 $3.00 Copyright© 1988by AcademicPress,Inc. Allrightsof reproductionin any formreserved.
Journalof Colloidand InterfaceScience, Vol. 126,No. 1, November1988
due to thermal fluctuations is followed by particle scattering theory. The latter includes Lorenz-Mie, Rayleigh-Debye, and physical optics treatments. Following this, actual spectral absorption and scattering coefficients of real samples are analyzed with the aid of these theoretical constants. Professor Shifrin has contributed most importantly to the inverse problem so it is not surprising that this subject figures importantly. The final chapter provides him with an opportunity to summarize and review his many contributions to this problem of estimating the particle size spectrum from absorption and scattering data. The culmination is his determination of the particle size distribution of various real oceanographic samples collected from various locales throughout the globe. The translation by David Oliver is quite smooth. The production by the American Institute of Physics is excellent. MILTON KERKER Department of Chemistry Clarkson University Potsdam, New York 13676
386 0021-9797/88 $3.00 Copyright© 1988by AcademicPress,Inc. Allrightsof reproductionin any formreserved.
Journalof Colloidand InterfaceScience, Vol. 126,No. 1, November1988