Course Description
Radiative transfer describes how radiation passes through matter. It is a fundamental area of physics that is used in many applications ranging from astrophysics to medical science. Its study requires an interdisciplinary mindset combining physics, mathematics, remote sensing, spectroscopy, etc.
In this course, the radiative transfer equation is derived and its solutions are discussed. In order to perform radiative transfer, one has to understand the cross sections or opacities of atoms and molecules, which are treated in detail. An approximate method that is the workhorse in atmospheric science is the two-stream method, which is used to understand how to derive detailed solutions for radiative transfer and appreciate the caveats and shortcomings associated with them. Scattering and Mie theory are introduced, and the relationship between opacities and temperature-pressure profiles is explored. Advanced topics include the Feautrier method, the delta-Eddington approximation, the discrete ordinates method and Lambda iteration. Several weeks of the course are devoted to applications of radiative transfer to real physical problems.
Most weeks include 45-minute exercise sessions in which students work on problem sets. The course is based on the textbooks "Radiative Transfer in the Atmosphere and Ocean", by Knut Stamnes, Gary E. Thomas & Jacob J. Stamnes (Cambridge University Press, second edition, 2017) and "Exoplanetary Atmospheres: Theoretical Concepts & Foundations" by Kevin Heng (Princeton University Press, 2017). Both books are available for loan from the University Library for Exact Sciences (ExWi).
