Radiative Transfer Processes in the Atmosphere

FIGURE 14.6 Schematic diagram of radiative transfer in the atmosphere (a) between vertical layers in the atmosphere (b) within a volume element (c) on a molecular level. The filled circles on the energy levels portray qualitatively the much larger populations in the ground state. 

There are a variety of radiative transfer models for the atmosphere that incorporate all of the emission, absorption, and scattering processes as a function of altitude. These are used to predict the total radiance as 

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