ATM S 533, Winter Quarter 2006

Atmospheric Radiation (Advanced)

Instructor:

Prof. Qiang Fu

308 Atmospheric Sciences Bldg., 685-2070

qfu@atmos.washington.edu

Meeting Times: 10:30-11:50 am, T TH, ATG 610

Grading: 40% assignments, 30% midterm, and 30% class project report (or

final exam).

Office Hours: 1:00 - 2:00 pm, T TH

Prerequisites: Phys 225 or Atms 532 (or 501) or permission of instructor

(no permission needed for our grads).

Reference books: An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation by K.N. Liou

A First Course in Atmospheric Radiation by G.W. Petty

Course Outline:

1. Introduction

Definitions and radiation quantities; Kirchhoff's law; Formulation of

the general radiative transfer equation and its formal solution;

Radiative transfer equation in plane-parallel atmospheres with direct

solar beam; Legendre polynomial expansion of scattering phase functions;

Gauss's formula.

2. Radiative Transfer

Basic equations including azimuthally-averaged radiative transfer

equation; Two-stream solution; Eddington's solution; Application to

nonhomogeneous atmospheres; Delta-Adjustment and similarity principle;

Discrete ordinates method; Adding method; Monte-Carlo method; Some

advanced topics.

3. Optical Properties

Polarization of matters and classic theories; A closer look at the

refractive index; Optical properties of heterogeneous mixtures;

Reflection and transmission at a plane boundary; Some applications.

4. Single Scattering

Review of electromagnetic theory; Mie theory; Geometric optics; Light

scattering by non-spherical particles.

5. Applications in remote sensing and climate