Travel Support for the 12th International Conference on Light and Color in Nature; Granada, Spain; May 31 - June 3, 2016

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This grant is for travel support for six or more researchers from the U.S. to participate in the 12th International Conference on Light and Color in Nature in Granada, Spain. For 38 years, researchers from around the world have been gathering at approximately three-year intervals to share the latest results of their investigations into optical phenomena observed in nature. These meetings have done much for enhancing science and education in atmospheric optics and related fields by being the foremost (and virtually only) forum for reporting advances in atmospheric and environmental optics. This meeting has been particularly successful at motivating archival research papers and popular articles, films, and books on the subject of optics in nature. Each meeting is followed by a Light and Color in the Open Air feature issue of the Journal of the Optical Society of America or Applied Optics. In 2001, the Optical Society of America published a CD collection of the papers from the first 25 years of these conferences. Each conference includes a public session for K-12 students and teachers, typically attracting 200-300 outside attendees. Significantly motivated by the opportunities and interactions provided by these meetings, numerous participants have published books reaching out to people from scientists to the general public.The topics addressed at the meeting include, but are not entirely limited to, the following: rainbows, ice crystal halos, glories, coronas, iridescence, sky color, atmospheric visibility, refraction effects, contrast phenomena, noctilucent clouds, optics of lightning, auroras, colors created by absorption and scattering in water and air, color and light in water and on water surfaces, iridescence and colors in biology and geology. Examples of recent publications from these meetings include the first documented photographs of the 3rd- and 4th-order rainbows, an explanation of new halo formations, measurement of coronas in ice clouds, a general theory for ice-crystal halo formation, model and experimental verification of halo polarization through ice birefringence, new computer models for quantitative studies of color variation with cloud optical depth and particle sizes, and the use of glitter patterns to study ocean-wave slope statistics.