Characteristics of the radiation emerging from the top of a Rayleigh atmosphere—II Total upward flux and albedo |
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| Authors: | K L Coulson |
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| Institution: | Meteorology Department, University of California, Los Angeles, USA |
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| Abstract: | The solution of the equation of radiative transfer in a medium exhibiting Rayleigh scattering, as developed by S. Chandrasekhar, has been used for an extensive series of computations(3) of the characteristics of the scattered and diffusely reflected radiation emerging from the top of an atmospheric model which corresponds in many respects to the sunlit portion of the earth's atmosphere. The first part of this two-part discussion dealt with the intensity, degree of polarization, plane of polarization and the neutral points of the emergent light as functions of sun elevation, direction in the downward hemisphere, optical thickness of the model atmosphere and reflectivity of the underlying surface. This second part is concerned with the upward flux obtained by an integration of the intensity over the entire hemisphere, for the incident radiation (a) being independent of wavelength or (b) having the spectral distribution of the extra-terrestrial solar radiation. Integration with respect to wavelength in the latter case, together with an approximation for the sphericity of the atmosphere, yields a value of 7.6 per cent for the earth's planetary albedo due to scattering by the clear atmosphere. An approximation for ozone absorption decreases the computed albedo to 6.9 per cent. |
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