Monte Carlo simulation of light scattering in the atmosphere and effect of atmospheric aerosols on the point spread function

Abstract

We present a Monte Carlo simulation for the scattering of light in the case of an isotropic light source. The scattering phase functions are studied particularly in detail to understand how they can affect the multiple light scattering in the atmosphere. We show that, although aerosols are usually in lower density than molecules in the atmosphere, they can have a non-negligible effect on the atmospheric point spread function. This effect is especially expected for ground-based detectors when large aerosols are present in the atmosphere.