Application of photometric models to asteroids.

The way an asteroid or other atmosphereless solar system body varies in brightness in response to changing illumination and viewing geometry depends in a very complicated way on the physical and optical properties of its surface and on its overall shape. The authors summarize the formulation and application of recent photometric models by Hapke and by Lumme and Bowell. In both models, the brightness of a rough and porous surface is parametrized in terms of the optical properties of individual particles, by shadowing between particles, and by the way in which light is scattered among collections of particles.