High-Power Laser Radiation in Atmospheric Aerosols

1: Microphysical and Optical Characteristics of Atmospheric Aerosols.- 1.1. Introduction.- 1.2. Preliminary Discussion.- 1.2.1. Light Scattering by a Single Aerosol Particle.- 1.2.2. Light Scattering by a System of Particles.- 1.2.3. Scattering Phase Matrix.- 1.3. Light Scattering by Clouds and Fogs.- 1.3.1. Microphysical Parameters of Clouds and Fogs.- 1.3.2. Volume Extinction Coefficients.- 1.4. Light Scattering by Hazes.- 1.4.1. Microphysical Parameters of Hazes.- 1.4.2. Volume Extinction Coefficients.- 1.5. Microphysical and Optical Characteristics of Precipitation.- 1.6. Scattering Phase Functions of Polydispersed Aerosols.- References: Chapter 1.- 2: Low-Energy (Subexplosive) Effects of Radiation on Individual Particles.- 2.1. Regular Regimes of Droplet Vaporization in the Radiation Field.- 2.2. Vaporization of Haze Particles Consisting of a Solid Nucleus and a Shell of Salt in Solution.- 2.2.1. The Equation describing Particle Vaporization.- 2.2.2. The Heat Problem.- 2.2.3. Variation of Salt Concentration in the Process of Particle Vaporization.- 2.2.4. Growth of the Solid Nucleus.- 2.3. Some Peculiarities in the Vaporization of Solid Aerosol Particles by High-Power Radiation.- 2.3.1. The Diffusion Regime of Vaporization of Solid Spherical Particles.- 2.3.2. The Pre-Explosion Gas-Dynamic Regime of Vaporization.- 2.4. Burning of Carbon Aerosol Particles in a Laser Beam.- 2.5. Initiation of Droplet Surface Vibrations by Laser Radiation.- 2.5.1. Basic Relationships.- 2.5.2. Resonance Excitation of the Capillary Waves.- 2.5.3. The Parametric Excitation of the Capillary Waves.- 2.5.4. Experiments on the Excitation of the Oscillations of Transparent Droplets using Laser Radiation.- References: Chapter 2.- 3: The Formation of Clear Zones in Clouds and Fogs Due to the Vaporization of Droplets under Regular Regimes.- 3.1. Basic Characteristics of the Process of Clearing a 'Frozen' Cloud.- 3.2. Stationary Cleared Channels in Moving Clouds.- 3.3. The Unstable Regime of Moving Cloud Clearance.- 3.4. The Determination of the Parameters of the Cleared Zone Taking into Account the Angular Beam Width and Wind Speed.- 3.5. The Generalized Formula Describing the Beam Intensity in the Process of Beam-Induced Clearing.- 3.6. The Cleared Channel under Conditions of Turbulent Aerosol Transport.- 3.7. Nonlinear Extinction Coefficient of Aerosols.- 3.8. The Investigation of Beam-Induced Clearing of Natural Fogs.- References: Chapter 3.- 4: Self-Action of a Wave Beam in a Water Aerosol under Conditions of Regular Droplet Vaporization.- 4.1. Basic Equations of Wave Beam Self-action in a Discrete Scattering Medium.- 4.2. The Field of the Effective Complex Dielectric Constant of the Aerosol (within the Beam).- 4.2.1. Components of the Effective Complex Dielectric Constant.- 4.2.2. The Fluctuation Characteristics of the Field of the Complex Effective Dielectric Constant.- 4.3. Description of the Mean Intensity of a Beam.- 4.3.1. The Method of Transfer Equation.- 4.3.2. The Parabolic Equation Method.- 4.4. The Influence of Thermal Distortions of Wave Beams and Fluctuations of the Medium on the Beam-Induced Dissipation of Water Aerosols.- 4.4.1. The Influence of Nonstationary Thermal Defocusing on the Beam-Induced Dissipation of Water Aerosols.- 4.4.2. The Influence of Stationary Thermal Distortions of the Beam on the Process of Water Aerosol Dissipation.- 4.4.3. The Influence of the Turbulent Motion of the Medium on the Dissipation of Water Aerosols by Laser Beams.- References: Chapter 4.- 5: Laser Beam Propagation through an Explosively Evaporating Water-Droplet Aerosol.- 5.1. Droplet Explosion Initiated by High-Power Laser Radiation.- 5.1.1. Droplet Explosion as an Optothermodynamic Process.- 5.1.2. Experiments.- 5.2. Droplet Explosion Regimes.- 5.2.1. Fragmentation.- 5.2.2. Gas-Dynamic Explosion.- 5.3. Attenuation of Light by an Exploding Droplet.- 5.3.1. Extinction Coefficient of a Droplet Exploding in the Supercritical Regime.- 5.3.2. The Extinction Coefficient in the case of a Two-Phase Explosion.- 5.4. Experimental Investigations of Laser Beam Propagation through Explosively Evaporating Aerosols.- References: Chapter 5.- 6: Propagation of High-Power Laser Radiation through Hazes.- 6.1. Nonlinear Optical Effects in Hazes: Classification and Features.- 6.1.1. Characteristic Relaxation Times in Hazes Irradiated with High-Power Lasers.- 6.1.2. Propagation Equations for High-Power Radiation in Media Composed of Randomly-Distributed Centers.- 6.2. Nonlinear Scattering of Light by Thermal Aureoles around Light-Absorbing Particles.- 6.2.1. Introduction.- 6.2.2. An Analysis of Thermohydrodynamic Perturbations of the Medium due to the Absorption of Radiation by Solid Aerosol Particles.- 6.2.3. The Influence of Turbulent Heat Transfer and Particle Motion relative to the Medium on the Optical Characteristics of Thermal Aureoles.- 6.3. Thermal Self-Action of a High-Power Laser Pulse Propagating through Dusty Hazes.- 6.3.1. A Theoretical Analysis of the Effects of Light Scattering by Thermal Aureoles and the Defocusing of the Laser Pulse in the Light-Absorbing Hazes.- 6.3.2. Calculation of Laser Beam Self-broadening in a Light-Absorbing Aerosol by the Method of Statistical Modeling.- 6.3.3. Experimental Investigations of Pulsed Laser Self-broadening due to Scattering by Thermal Aureoles.- 6.4. Laser Radiation Transfer in Combustible Aerosols.- 6.5. Thermal Blooming of the cw and Quasi-cw Laser Beams due to Light Absorption by Atmospheric Aerosols and Gases.- 6.5.1. General Discussion of the Problem.- 6.5.2. The Effects of Laser Beam Interaction with a Conservative Light-Absorbing Component.- 6.5.3. Thermal Self-Action of Laser Beams in Water-Droplet Hazes.- References: Chapter 6.- 7: Ionization and Optical Breakdown in Aerosol Media.- 7.1. Physical and Mathematical Formulations of the Problem.- 7.2. Theoretical Analysis of Pulsed Optical Breakdown on Solid Aerosol Particles.- 7.2.1. Evaluations of the Order of Magnitude.- 7.2.2. The Analysis of Avalanche Ionization Processes in the Vapor Aureoles of Light-Absorbing Particles.- 7.3. The Influence of Atmospheric Turbulence on the Concentration of Optical Breakdown Centers.- 7.4. Laboratory Experiments on Laser Sparking.- 7.5. Optical Breakdown of Water Aerosols.- 7.5.1. Optical Breakdown of Water Aerosols by a Pulsed CO2-Laser.- 7.5.2. Optical Breakdown Initiated at Weakly-Absorbing Water Aerosol Particles.- 7.6. Field Experiments on the Nonlinear Energetic Attenuation of Pulsed CO2-Laser Radiation during the Optical Breakdown of the Atmosphere.- References: Chapter 7.- 8: Laser Monitoring of a Turbid Atmosphere Using Nonlinear Effects.- 8.1. Brief Description of the Problem.- 8.2. Distortions of Lidar Returns caused by the Nonlinear Effects of the Interaction of High-Power Laser Radiation with Aerosols.- 8.3. An Analysis of the Criteria for Detecting a High-Power Laser Beam in Fog when the Beam Power is Sufficient to Dissipate the Fog.- 8.4. Remote Spectrochemical Analysis of Aerosol Composition using the Emission and Luminescent Spectra Induced by High-Power Laser Beams.- 8.5. An Analysis of the Possibilities of Sensing the High-Power Laser Beam Channel using Opto-Acoustic Techniques.- References: Chapter 8.- Index of Subjects.