Wide angle light scattering in shock-laser interaction

Any change of gas density in a flowfield is accompanied by a change in the refractive index. The sharpest change is found in a shock wave, which has a very small thickness. Light disturbances propagating across this sharp change deviate from their original path and make the shock easily visible in schlieren and shadowgraph images. An optical phenomenon is presented where a very wide angle scattering of light is observed due to interaction between a shock wave and a laser beam.