Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean, Second Edition

by Knut Stamnes (Author), Gary E. Thomas (Author), Jakob J. Stamnes (Author)

This new and completely updated edition gives a detailed description of radiative transfer processes at a level accessible to advanced students. The volume gives the reader a basic understanding of global warming and enhanced levels of harmful ultraviolet radiation caused by ozone depletion. It teaches the basic physics of absorption, scattering and emission processes in turbid media, such as the atmosphere and ocean, using simple semi-classical models. The radiative transfer equation, including multiple scattering, is formulated and solved for several prototype problems, using both simple approximate and accurate numerical methods. In addition, the reader has access to a powerful, state-of-the-art computational code for simulating radiative transfer processes in coupled atmosphere-water systems including snow and ice. This computational code can be regarded as a powerful educational aid, but also as a research tool that can be applied to solve a variety of research problems in environmental sciences.

Review
"…the book provides a lucid and reasonably complete, practical treatment of the fundamentals of plane-parallel radiative transfer theory in the atmosphere and ocean and the exchange of radiant energy between the atmosphere and ocean. The book is easy to read, and there are many examples to illustrate the concepts discussed…[It] should serve well as an introduction to radiative transfer." EOS

"All in all, this is a valuable resource for those interested in terrestrial radiative transfer. It contains good discussions and physical explanations within the main text, useful summaries, notes, comments, and up-to-date references." Physics Today –This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.