Accessible surface area

All points are checked against the surface of neighboring atoms to determine whether they are buried or accessible.

Another factor that affects the results is the definition of the VDW radii of the atoms in the molecule under study.

The LCPO method uses a linear approximation of the two-body problem for a quicker analytical calculation of ASA.

The LCPO method is also used when calculating implicit solvent effects in the molecular dynamics software package AMBER.

It is also calculated in practice via a rolling-ball algorithm developed by Frederic Richards[7] and implemented three-dimensionally by Michael Connolly in 1983[8] and Tim Richmond in 1984.

Illustration of the solvent accessible surface in comparison to the van der Waals surface . The van der Waals surface as given by the atomic radii is shown in red. The accessible surface is drawn with dashed lines and is created by tracing the center of the probe sphere (in blue) as it rolls along the van der Waals surface. Note that the probe radius depicted here is of smaller scale than the typical 1.4Å.