 Dipole anisotropy of a radiance field

A dipole anisotropy of a radiance field is a directional first-order departure from a constant radiance:Here $\mathbf{\omega }$ is a unit viewing direction, and the bound ensures nonnegative radiance. Writing $\mathbf{b}=ϵ\mathbf{a}$ with unit $\mathbf{a}$ gives the amplitude/direction convention in the title. The angular isotropy test with planar irradiance measurements derives its receiver response.

An original inversion uses opposite receiver orientations. Suppose measured irradiances are $E(+x)=3.4$, $E(-x)=2.6$, and all four $y,z$ readings equal $3.0\mathrm{W}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$. The pair means give $\pi L_0=3.0\mathrm{W}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$. Sincethe fitted vector is $\mathbf{b}=(0.20,0,0)$. Agreement of the three pair sums is an additional check on this restricted model and a stable measurement chain.

The first angular moment of a radiance field is $\int \mathbf{\omega }Ld\Omega =(4\pi /3)L_0\mathbf{b}$. By contrast, integrating $L$ over all directions gives $4\pi L_0$, independent of $\mathbf{b}$. Thus this example's projected-area-normalized spherical irradiance is $12\mathrm{W}{\mathrm{m}}^{-2}$, exactly the value for an isotropic field with the same $L_0$. One all-direction scalar cannot determine its dipole.^[ref] Receiver angular response must also be characterized rather than assumed ideal.