Physics Commons^™

Wave Optics Approach To Solar Cell Brdf Modeling With Experimental Results, Madilynn Compean, Todd V. Small, Milo W. Hyde Iv, Michael Marciniak

Faculty Publications

Light curve analysis is often used to discern information about satellites in geosynchronous orbits. Solar panels, comprising a large part of the satellite’s body, contribute significantly to these light curves. Historically, theoretical bidirectional reflectance distribution functions (BRDFs) have failed to capture key features in the scattered light from solar panels. In recently published work, a new solar cell BRDF was developed by combining specular microfacet and “two-slit” diffraction terms to capture specular and periodic/array scattering, respectively. This BRDF was experimentally motivated and predicted many features of the solar cell scattered irradiance. However, the experiments that informed the BRDF were limited …