A new analytical method for optical measurements used to determine time- and spatially-resolved effects in shocked materials is described. This method is quite general and may be applied to a variety of spectroscopic techniques. We apply this method to the interpretation of time-resolved Mie scattering spectroscopy in shocked benzene, showing the effects of nucleation of nanometer-size diamond particles as a separate condensed phase in the shock-reacted material. (C) 2003 American Institute of Physics.