Effects of aerosol scattering phase function formulation on point-spread-function calculations.
The quality of the image produced by an outdoor optical system is affected by the presence of atmospheric aerosols between object and receiver. The properties of the point-spread function that result from aerosol particles were calculated by a new Monte Carlo code called MEDIA (an acronym for Modélisation des Effets de Diffusion Inhérents à l'Atmosphère). The influence of the scattering phase function's angular dependence on the irradiance of the focal plane of a detector was studied. Calculations were performed by use of Mie theory and of the Henyey-Greenstein formulation for the same asymmetry parameter and various detector optical characteristics and atmospheric conditions. Major variations were observed for strong forward-peaked scattering phase functions and a large detector field of view.