Transmission of light in a synthetic fog medium

The primary goal of this project was to study the propagation of visible light through a synthetic fog medium as a function of wavelength. First, a controlled environment was necessary to deliver and remove fog. A system for the delivery of light and its measurement was developed. Transmission data in the fog medium were compared with data collected in ambient air. As expected there was an inversely proportional relationship between light intensity and distance for all wavelengths studied. The light intensity was also inversely related to the fog density of the environment. These data demonstrate that light transmission through fog is equally degraded at all wavelengths tested. Thus, synthetic fog seems to be a uniform obscurant. The study of synthetic fog has many biomedical applications such as: traffic and airline safety, security, and human health safety.