This article reports usage of the lattice Boltzmann method to analyze transport of short-pulse radiation in a participating medium. Radiatively, the planar medium is absorbing and anisotropically scattering. A new kind of lattice structure handles angular distribution of radiation in the 4 pi-spherical space. For the short-pulse laser with step temporal profile incident on the north boundary, effects of extinction coefficient, scattering albedo, anisotropy factor, angle of incidence and pulse width on temporal transmittance and reflectance signals are analyzed. To access the accuracy and computational efficiency of the lattice Boltzmann method, in all cases, results are also obtained by solving the same problem using the finite volume method. Lattice Boltzmann method provides accurate results, and computationally it has an advantage over the finite volume method. (C) 2014 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.