July 2011      ISSUE 41

We have moved!

The ELS newsletter new location is at the Department of Astronomy,

University of Maryland

----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

The Publisher and Editors of JQSRT are very pleased to inform the light-scattering community of two important recent developments.

First, according to the ISI Journal Citation Reports database, the 2010 Impact Factor for JQSRT is 2.331. This represents a 25% growth over the 2009 value 1.862, thereby demonstrating that the journal is in excellent shape. The 2010 Immediacy Index for JQSRT is also a very healthy 0.740, up from 0.641 a year ago.

Second, we wholeheartedly congratulate Professor Joachim W. Hovenier on becoming the first recipient of the Van de Hulst Light-Scattering Award. This prestigious professional Elsevier award is intended to commemorate landmark life-time achievements of a leading authority in the field of electromagnetic scattering by particles and particle groups and is administered under the auspices of JQSRT. The 2011 Van de Hulst Award was voted on by the JQSRT Editors-in-Chief and Associate Editors and will be presented during the 13th Conference on Electromagnetic and Light Scattering in Taormina, Italy in September 2011 during the conference banquet. The following morning Joop is scheduled to give a memorial lecture.

!!!!!!!!Congratulations!!!!!!!

=====================================================================

Meeting

AGU FALL 2011 SESSION: P29.

POLARIMETRY AS AN INVALUABLE TOOL TO STUDY THE SOLAR SYSTEM AND BEYOND

Dear Colleagues,

We kindly invite you to submit an abstract to the session P29: "Polarimetry as an Invaluable Tool to Study the Solar System and Beyond" of AGU Fall Meeting 2011, which will take place in San Francisco, CA, 5-8 December.

Polarimetry is a powerful tool providing a wealth of information about astronomical objects that cannot be obtained by traditional photometric/spectroscopic observations. In the solar system polarimetry has been widely used e.g. to characterize the surface of atmosphereless bodies and in solar physics to explore the magnetism of the solar atmosphere.

This session is open to papers about recent spectropolarimetric observations of solar system bodies (including comets), theoretical or experimental investigations and instrumental developments for spectropolarimeters to be included in ground-based facilities or onboard future space missions. Presentations about polarimetry of exoplanets and circumstellar envelopes are also welcome.

More information: Session P29 "Polarimetry as an Invaluable Tool to Study the Solar System and Beyond" http://sites.agu.org/fallmeeting/scientific-program/session-search/663

Deadline for abstract submission: 04 August 2011

http://agu-fm11.abstractcentral.com/

Conveners:

Herve Lamy, Mathieu Barthelemy, Javier Trujillo-Bueno, Cyril Simon Wedlund

========================================================================

New book

A new book on "Polarimetric Detection, Characterization, and Remote Sensing" has just been published by Springer. For more information, see

http://www.giss.nasa.gov/staff/mmishchenko/publications/2011_NATO_Front_matter.pdf

We highly appreciate the hard work of the editors Michael Mishchenko, Yaroslav Yatskiv, Vera Rosenbush and Gorden Videen who prepare the book for publication in a record short time after the NATO ASI in Kyiv.

========================================================================

New database

The new Amsterdam-Granada Light Scattering Database is freely available at www.iaa.es/scattering [www.iaa.es] .

The database contains experimental scattering matrix elements as functions of the scattering angle of small irregular particles measured in Amsterdam (Hovenier 2000) and Granada (Munoz et al 2010). The database also includes information of the sample under study such as, size distribution, composition, origin, optical and/or scanning microscope images, and refractive indices. Apart from that, to facilitate the correct use of the experimental data, detailed theoretical basis are also provided. The particle samples studied in both experimental apparatus are relevant for astronomy and studies of the Earth's atmosphere, but the light scattering results may also be applicable e.g. in the paper and paint industry, or in the fields of chemistry or biology. For more detail see

----J.W. Hovenier. Measuring scattering matrices of small particles at optical wavelengths. In: Light scattering by nonspherical particles, edited by M. I. Mishchenko, J. W. Hovenier, and L. D. Travis,

Academic, San Diego, CA, 2000:355-365.

----O. Munoz, F. Moreno, D. Guirado, J.L. Ramos, A. Lopez, F. Girela, J.M. Jeronimo, L.P. Costillo, I. Bustamante. The new IAA Light scattering apparatus. JQSRT 2010; 111: 187-196.

Recent Papers

See recently indexed and summarized papers on the optics of particles and dispersions in TPDSci: http://www.tpdsci.com/Sv_.php?list=SvPdo (Notice a change in the website address, update your bookmarks)