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

这笔经费用于资助6名或以上的美国研究人员参加在西班牙格拉纳达举行的第12届国际自然光与色会议。38年来，来自世界各地的研究人员大约每隔三年聚集一次，分享他们对自然界中观察到的光学现象的最新研究结果。这些会议通过成为报告大气和环境光学进展的最重要的（实际上也是唯一的）论坛，为加强大气光学和相关领域的科学和教育做出了很大的贡献。这次会议特别成功地激发了关于自然光学主题的档案研究论文和流行文章、电影和书籍。每次会议之后都有《美国光学学会杂志》或《应用光学》的“户外光与色”专题。2001年，美国光学学会（Optical Society of America）出版了一张CD，收录了这些会议前25年的论文。每次会议都包括一个面向K-12学生和教师的公开会议，通常会吸引200-300名外部与会者。受到这些会议提供的机会和互动的极大激励，许多与会者出版了面向从科学家到普通公众的书籍。会议讨论的主题包括但不完全限于：彩虹、冰晶光环、光晕、日冕、虹彩、天空颜色、大气能见度、折射效应、对比现象、夜光云、闪电光学、极光、水和空气中吸收和散射产生的颜色、水和水面上的颜色和光、生物学和地质学中的虹彩和颜色。这些会议最近发表的论文包括：第一张记录了三阶和四阶彩虹的照片、对新光晕形成的解释、冰云中日冕的测量、冰晶光晕形成的一般理论、通过冰双折射对光晕偏振的模型和实验验证、用于定量研究颜色随云光学深度和粒径变化的新计算机模型、并使用闪光模式来研究海浪斜率统计。

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.