RADIATIVE-TRANSFER IN VERTICALLY AND HORIZONTALLY INHOMOGENEOUS CLOUDS

A plane layer with two-dimensional periodic variations of scattering particles concentration is considered as a model of stratus. The form of these variations is assumed to be dependent on the height. By applying the perturbation method to solve radiative transfer equation, the problem of solar light propagation in such a cloud may be reduced to that for the cloud model with one-dimensional simple harmonic horizontal variations of scattering particles concentration with amplitude dependent on the height. In this case the albedo and transmission are expressed in terms of radiation density. Integral equations governing the radiation density are presented.