Light scattering properties of hexagonal plate-like crystals

Results of calculation of the Mueller matrices for the ice crystal particles of different hexagonal shapes are presented. The computational technique is based on the geometrical optics approximation and the ray-tracing method. The regularities of main optical phenomena (halo, parhelion and etc.) are discussed in case of crystals with random and preferred orientation in space. The comparison of phase functions computed for plate-like crystals with different shapes (solid plate, stellar dendrite, sector plate, hexagonal star-like plate) shows similarity of their scattering properties.