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Atmospheric Optical Phenomena and Radiative Transfer

  • We present simple radiative transfer models for the radiance and color of atmospheric optical phenomena. Skylight, halos, and rainbows are treated as singly scattered sunlight that is depleted by scattering as it passes through a plane-parallel atmosphere and a vertical rain shaft or a geometrically thin cloud layer. Skylight in a molecular atmosphere grades from deep blue at the zenith to pale blue near the horizon whenever the solar zenith angle sun ≤ 80°. Skylight near the horizon is orangeWe present simple radiative transfer models for the radiance and color of atmospheric optical phenomena. Skylight, halos, and rainbows are treated as singly scattered sunlight that is depleted by scattering as it passes through a plane-parallel atmosphere and a vertical rain shaft or a geometrically thin cloud layer. Skylight in a molecular atmosphere grades from deep blue at the zenith to pale blue near the horizon whenever the solar zenith angle sun ≤ 80°. Skylight near the horizon is orange resulting from wavelength-dependent scattering by air molecules and aerosol particles through a long oblique path through the atmosphere when the sun is low in the sky (sun ≥ 85°). Halos (and coronas) seen through clouds facing the sun are brightest for cloud optical depth τcld ≈ cos(sun), and fade to obscurity for τcld ≥ 5. Rainbows (and glories), seen by light that is backscattered from clouds, also appear most dramatic when 0.2 ≤ τcld ≤ 1, but remain visible even in the thickest clouds.show moreshow less

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Metadaten
Author:Stanley David Gedzelman, Michael VollmerGND
DOI:https://doi.org/10.1175/BAMS-89-4-471
Parent Title (English):In: Bulletin of the American Meteorological Society. 89 (2008) 4, 471-485
Document Type:Article
Language:English
Year of Publishing:2008
Date of Publication (online):2014/01/07
Release Date:2014/01/07
First Page:471
Last Page:485
University Bibliography:Hochschulbibliografie
Licence (German):Creative Commons - Namensnennung, Nicht kommerziell, Keine Bearbeitung
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