The Astrophysical Journal · 1981 · 87 citations · 0 references
Natural SciencesPhysicsAtmospheric ScienceOpticsRadiation TransportAtmospheric OpticsAtmospheric ScatteringPhysical OpticsPolarization OpticsRadiative ProcessesRadiative TransferLight ScatteringPolarized Light ScatteringRadiative Transfer EquationsRadiative Transfer In Plane-parallel AtmospheresRadiative Transfer ModelingRadiative Transfer Of Polarized LightRayleigh ScatteringStokes Parameters
A general problem concerning the diffusion of light in a finite plane-parallel atmosphere illuminated by an arbitrarily polarized radiation field is formulated. A decomposition in the azimuthal angle is used to reduce the problem to a set of radiative transfer equations, for the Stokes parameters, based on real quantities.