  The dependence of inter-particle correlations on the orientation of particle
relative-momentum can yield unique information on the space-time features of
emission in reactions with multiparticle final states. In the present paper,
the benefits of a representation and analysis of the three-dimensional
correlation information in terms of surface spherical harmonics is presented.
The harmonics include the standard complex tesseral harmonics and the real
cartesian harmonics. Mathematical properties of the lesser-known cartesian
harmonics are illuminated. The physical content of different angular harmonic
components in a correlation is described. The resolving power of different
final-state effects with regarding to determining angular features of emission
regions is investigated. The considered final-state effects include identity
interference and strong and Coulomb interactions. The correlation analysis in
terms of spherical harmonics is illustrated with the cases of gaussian and
blast-wave sources for proton-charged meson and baryon-baryon pairs.
