Rough-Surface Shadowing of Self-Affine Random Rough Surfaces

TL;DR

This paper investigates light scattering from self-affine rough surfaces using ray optics, introducing numerical methods to efficiently simulate shadowing effects and develop a reflectance model, with a focus on geometric shadowing and masking.

Contribution

It presents new numerical techniques for fast simulation of light scattering and shadowing on self-affine rough surfaces, enhancing understanding of azimuthal shadowing effects.

Findings

Shadowing effects depend strongly on surface roughness and azimuthal angle.

New algorithms significantly speed up scattering simulations.

Results improve modeling accuracy of light interaction with rough surfaces.

Abstract

Light scattering from self-affine homogeneous isotropic random rough surfaces is studied using the ray-optics approximation. Numerical methods are developed to accelerate the first-order scattering simulations from surfaces represented as single-connected single-valued random fields, and to store the results of the simulations into a numerical reflectance model. Horizon mapping and marching methods are developed to accelerate the simulation. Emphasis is given to the geometric shadowing and masking effects as a function of surface roughness, especially, to the azimuthal rough-surface shadowing effect.