RECENT ADVANCES IN MULTIPLE-SCATTERING THEORIES AND APPLICATIONS

There has been an increasing interest in multiple scattering phenomena in recent years. This is primarily due to the discovery of new multip le scattering phenomena and an increasing awareness that a common thre ad underlies the work of many researchers in such diverse fields as at mospheric optics. ocean acoustics. radio physics, astrophysics, conden sed matter physics, plasma physics, geophysics, bioengineering, etc. I n addition, waves in random media is one of the most challenging probl ems to theorericians. Thus the field of wave propagation and scatterin g encompasses the most practical as well as the most theoretical quest ions. The strong interest in this subject is reflected in the launch o f a new journal, Waves in Random Media, by the Institute of Physics, U nited Kingdom in 1991. This paper reviews some of the most recent deve lopments and discoveries in the field of wave propagation and scatteri ng in turbulence and volume and surface scattering. Included are new d iscoveries of backscattering enhancement and memory effects which may be applicable to tissue optics, ultrasound imaging, ocean acoustics an d geophysical remote sensing. Also indicated are recent developments o f numerical Monte-Carlo techniques and experimental studies on this su bject.