Modified two-flux approximation for identification of radiative properties of absorbing and scattering media from directional-hemispherical measurements

A modified two-flux approximation is suggested for calculating the hemispherical transmittance and reflectance of a refracting, absorbing, and scattering medium in the case of collimated irradiation of the sample along the normal to the interface. The Fresnel reflection is taken into account in this approach. It is shown that the new approximation is rather accurate for the model transport scattering function. For an arbitrary scattering medium, the error of the modified two-flux approximation is estimated by comparison with the exact numerical calculations for the Henyey-Greenstein scattering function in a wide range of albedos and optical thicknesses. Possible applications of the derived analytical solution to identification problems are discussed. (c) 2006 Optical Society of America.