The penetration of diffuse ultraviolet radiation into interstellar clouds

We show that the solution of the transfer equation appropriate for models of the penetration of diffuse UV radiation into interstellar clouds, subject to attenuation by coherent, nonconservative, anisotropic scattering from grains, can be expressed analytically, with arbitrary accuracy, by means of the spherical harmonics method. Models of plane-parallel and homogeneous spherical clouds are given as functions of three parameters: tau/sub c/ the central optical depth, ..omega.. the single scattering albedo, and g the parameter in the Henyey-Greenstein phase function. These models qualitatively confirm the results of earlier Monte Carlo simulations of dust scattering, but reveal quantitative discrepancies: the earlier results overestimated the actual mean intensity, often by more than an order of magnitude.