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DEPARTMENT FOR PHYSICS OF SOLAR SYSTEM BODIES
The Department for Physics of Solar System Bodies was organized
in 1984 on the basis of the Department of Physics of Planets (it was
created by Dr.Sci. I. K. Koval' in 1967).
In 1975-1999 the Department was headed by
Dr.Sci., Professor O. V. Morozhenko, since 2000 it is headed
by Dr.Sci. A. P. Vid'machenko.
In 1984 the Laboratory for the Theory of Radiative Transfer was created
and functioned till 2000. Dr.Sci., Professor E. G. Yanovitskij
was the head of the Laboratory.
The Department inclides the Laboratory for Atmospheric Optics
(the head is Ph.D. M.G. Sosonkin).
The Department's observational complex includes a 70-cm telescope
AZT-2 and devices made at the Department:
automatic photopolarimeter;
electrophotometer for measuring weak fluxes;
astronomical spectropolarimeter ("planetary patrol");
Fourier spectrometer;
Stokes-polarimeter;
digital panoramic polarimeter.
The theory and technology of manufacturing multicomponent achromatic
waveplates were developed at the Department.
Main directions of research are as follows: study of physics of
planetary atmospheres, as well as optical, dynamical, and kinematic
properties of atmospheres and surfaces of planets and their
satellites; theory of radiative transfer; astronomical instrument
manufacture.
The unique equipment designed at the Department made possible
essential achievements in observations of solar system bodies:
opposition effects in the radiation from Mars, Jupiter, and Saturn
were experimentally found; presence of the ammonia gas in the
atmosphere of Saturn and oriented particles in the upper layers of
Saturn's atmosphere was revealed; periodic changes in Jupiter's
itegrated brightness and seasonal restructurization of Jupiter's and
Saturn's atmospheres were found; circular polarization of the
radiation from Comet Halley; influence of the satellite Triton on the
intensity of the methane absorption bands in the atmosphere of
Neptune; opposition effect in the polarization of the radiation
reflected from the Galilean satellites of Jupiter; global horizontal
regular inhomogeneity of Venus's cloud layer, etc.
In 1995 E. G. Yanovitskij published the monograph "Light Scattering
in Inhomogeneous Atmospheres" (translated into English by
Springer in 1997) in which the fundamentals of the analytical theory
of radiative transfer in inhomogeneous flat atmospheres are expounded
in details for the first time.
MAIN RESULTS OBTAINED BY THE DEPARTMENT TEAM:
THE STAFF OF THE DEPARTMENT:
Laboratory
for Atmospheric Optics
The Laboratory for Atmospheric Optics
was created in 2000 (the head is Ph.D. M.G. Sosonkin).
Principal investigations are dedicated to the unique equipment and techniques
intended for remote monitoring of planets and the Earth's atmosphere.
THE STAFF OF THE LABORATORY FOR ATMOSPHERIC OPTICS:
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