Multiple Scattering in a Plane-Parallel Atmosphere. I. Successive Scattering in a Semi-Infinite Medium

Abstract

The reflection function for a plane-parallel semi-infinite conservative atmosphere with an isotropic phase function is computed by the method of successive scattering For sufficiently large orders of scattering the terms in the Neumann series approach an asymptotic form. With the use of this asymptotic form one may immediately compute the reflection function of the layer for an arbitrary albedo of single scattering n < 1. The method is general and may be used for an arbitrary phase function.