Disentangling the main populations of the Zodiacal Cloud from Zodiacal Light observations

Photometric surveys of the Zodiacal Light (ZL) already allowed to retrieve features of interplanetary dust space distribution and optical behaviour. Of the brightness “gathering” function dZ = D(α)/m along each line of sight (LOS), (α being the phase angle, m the subsolar distance of the LOS, D) the local scattering coefficient), two approximate values could be derived, based on the constraints provided by the two observed values of its integral Z, when the LOS is in-ecliptic. This “nodes of lesser uncertainty” method (Dumont, Levasseur-Regourd, Renard, 1985 to 1996), however, lowered but did not rule out question marks upon the phase function.