Mie light-scattering granulometer with adaptive numerical filtering. I. Theory

A search procedure based on a least-squares method including a regularizati on scheme constructed from numerical filtering is presented. This method, w ith the addition of a nephelometer, can be used to determine the particle-s ize distributions of various scattering media (aerosols, fogs, rocket exhau sts, motor plumes) from angular static light-scattering measurements. For r etrieval of the distribution function, the experimental data are matched wi th theoretical patterns derived from Mie theory. The method is numerically investigated with simulated data, and the performance of the inverse proced ure is evaluated. The results show that the retrieved distribution function is quite reliable, even for strong levels of noise. (C) 2000 Optical Socie ty of America OCIS codes: 290.3200, 290.4020.