A fundamental-source-function formulation of radiative transfer and the resulting fundamental reciprocity relations

An important problem in radiative transfer is finding the radiative fields produced by various illuminations (both external and internal) of a plane-parallel, inhomogeneous, absorbing, emitting, and anisotropically-scattering finite medium. One approach to a solution is to find the source function, which represents the rate of production of scattered radiation per unit volume and solid angle, at each point in the medium. The present study develops the existence of a Green's function, called the fundamental source function, which separates the optical properties of the medium from the driving illumination. Radiative linearity then allows the representation of all possible source functions as convolutions of the illumination with the fundamental source function. Parametric differentiation (invariant imbedding) is used to replace the governing linear integral equation for the fundamental source function with a set of differential equations appropriate for numerical integration. This approach for finding the fundamental source function leads naturally to the introduction of fundamental scattering and transmission functions. Our inclusion of anisotropic internal illumination (sources) allows us to develop four new reciprocity relations involving these functions. The reciprocity relations state general equivalences between an internally and an externally driven medium and thus greatly reduce the complexity of radiative transfer.     

Derivation and application of the reciprocity relations for radiative transfer with internal illumination

A Green's function formulation is used to derive basic reciprocity relations for planar radiative transfer in a general medium with internal illumination. Reciprocity (or functional symmetry) allows an explicit and generalized development of the equivalence between source and probability functions. Assuming similar symmetry in three-dimensional space, a general relationship is derived between planar-source intensity and point-source total directional energy. These quantities are expressed in terms of standard (universal) functions associated with the planar medium, while all results are derived from the differential equation of radiative transfer.     

Generalized form of the direct and adjoint radiative transfer equations

The main goal of this paper is to give a rigorous derivation of the generalized form of the direct (also referenced as forward) and adjoint radiative transfer equations. The obtained expressions coincide with expressions derived by Ustinov [Adjoint sensitivity analysis of radiative transfer equation: temperature and gas mixing ratio weighting functions for remote sensing of scattering atmospheres in thermal IR. JQSRT 2001;68:195-211]. However, in contrast to [Ustinov EA. Adjoint sensitivity analysis of radiative transfer equation: temperature and gas mixing ratio weighting functions for remote sensing of scattering atmospheres in thermal IR. JQSRT 2001;68:195-211] we formulate the generalized form of the direct radiative transfer operator fully independent from its adjoint. To illustrate the application of the derived adjoint radiative transfer operator we consider the angular interpolation problem in the framework of the discrete ordinate method widely used to solve the radiative transfer equation. It is shown that under certain conditions the usage of the solution of the adjoint radiative transfer equation for the angular interpolation of the intensity can be computationally more efficient than the commonly used source function integration technique.     

Numerical results for the thermal scattering functions

A recent formulation in radiative transfer defined the thermal scattering functions that characterize radiative transfer from a general, plane-parallel, finite medium driven solely by an internal distribution of thermal sources. Exiting diffuse intensities are expressed as space convolutions of the thermal scattering functions with any thermal source distribution. A parametric study is presented to obtain the basic structure of these scattering functions. The independent variables of these azimuthally independent functions are the direction consine μ and source location t, while the parameters are the single scattering albedo ω, total optical depth t₀, and the asymmetry factor g in the Henyey-Greenstein phase function. The basic functional trends are discussed using various parametric plots, and selected tabular results are given to allow numerical checks. The computational method is invariant imbedding. As a particular application, these functions are used in the following companion paper to obtain exiting intensities from inhomogeneous and nonisothermal media.     

Efficient and accurate method for radiation transfer problems

An efficient method of analysis, which utilizes trial functions based on Case's eigenvalues, is developed for solving radiation transfer in an absorbing and scattering homogeneous semi-infinite plane-parallel medium subjected to externally incident radiation. Expressions for the forward and backward intensities, reflectivity and total radiation intensity are included. Numerical results are given and compared involving different forms of the externally incident radiation on the boundary surface. It is shown that the solution converges rapidly to the exact results and that lower-order solutions predict values of the physical parameters that are accurate to five figures in all values of the single-scattering albedos in the range 0.1 ≤ ω ≤ 1. The method has been also used to get approximate formulae for calculating Chandrasekhar's characteristic H-functions and their moments.     

Radiative transfer theory with time delay for the effect of pulse entrapping in a resonant random medium: General transfer equation and point-like scatterer model

Abstract

A pulse propagation of a vector electromagnetic wave field in a discrete random medium under the condition of Mie resonant scattering is considered on the basis of the Bethe–Salpeter equation in the two-frequency domain in the form of an exact kinetic equation which takes into account the energy accumulation inside scatterers. The kinetic equation is simplified using the transverse field and far wave zone approximations which give a new general tensor radiative transfer equation with strong time delay by resonant scattering. This new general radiative transfer equation, being specified in terms of the low-density limit and the resonant point-like scatterer model, takes the form of a new tensor radiative transfer equation with three Lorentzian time-delay kernels by resonant scattering. In contrast to the known phenomenological scalar Sobolev equation with one Lorentzian time-delay kernel, the derived radiative transfer equation does take into account effects of (i) the radiation polarization, (ii) the energy accumulation inside scatterers, (iii) the time delay in three terms, namely in terms with the Rayleigh phase tensor, the extinction coefficient and a coefficient of the energy accumulation inside scatterers, respectively (i.e. not only in a term with the Rayleigh phase tensor). It is worth noting that the derived radiative transfer equation is coordinated with Poynting's theorem for non-stationary radiation, unlike the Sobolev equation. The derived radiative transfer equation is applied to study the Compton–Milne effect of a pulse entrapping by its diffuse reflection from the semi-infinite random medium when the pulse, while propagating in the medium, spends most of its time inside scatterers. This specific albedo problem for the derived radiative transfer equation is resolved in scalar approximation using a version of the time-dependent invariance principle. In fact, the scattering function of the diffusely reflected pulse is expressed in terms of a generalized time-dependent Chandrasekhar H-function which satisfies a governing nonlinear integral equation. Simple analytic asymptotics are obtained for the scattering function of the front and the back parts of the diffusely reflected Dirac delta function incident pulse, depending on time, the angle of reflection, the mean free time, the microscopic time delay and a parameter of the energy accumulation inside scatterers. These asymptotics show quantitatively how the rate of increase of the front part and the rate of decrease of the rear part of the diffusely reflected pulse become slower with transition from the regime of conventional radiative transfer to that of pulse entrapping in the resonant random medium.     

Three-dimensional radiative transfer in an isotropically scattering, plane-parallel medium: generalized X- and Y-functions

The topic of this work is the generalized X- and Y-functions of multidimensional radiative transfer. The physical problem considered is spatially varying, collimated radiation incident on the upper boundary of an isotropically scattering, plane-parallel medium. An integral transform is used to reduce the three-dimensional transport equation to a one-dimensional form, and a modified Ambarzumian's method is used to derive coupled, integro-differential equations for the source functions at the boundaries of the medium. The resulting equations are said to be in double-integral form because the integration is over both angular variables. Numerical results are presented to illustrate the computational characteristics of the formulation.     

Radiative transfer with anisotropic scattering in an isothermal slab

Two types of anisotropic scattering, linear anisotropic scattering and Rayleigh anisotropic scattering, are considered in the analysis of radiative transfer for an isothermal, plane-parallel medium confined between gray, diffuse walls. The problem is formulated in terms of a coupled pair of integral equations containing the intensity-moments as the unknown variables. These intensity-moments are shown to be the components of the source function. The set of equations is then solved both numerically and in closed form. The results reveal clearly the effects of anisotropic scattering on important characteristics such as heat flux directional emittance and incident radiant energy per unit area. These effects are well predicted by the approximate closed-form solution.     

Resolution of the uncertainties in the radiative forcing of HFC-134a

HFC-134a (CF₃CH₂F) is the most rapidly growing hydrofluorocarbon in terms of atmospheric abundance. It is currently used in a large number of household refrigerators and air-conditioning systems and its concentration in the atmosphere is forecast to increase substantially over the next 50-100 years. Previous estimates of its radiative forcing per unit concentration have differed significantly ∼25%. This paper uses a two-step approach to resolve this discrepancy. In the first step six independent absorption cross section datasets are analysed. We find that, for the integrated cross section in the spectral bands that contribute most to the radiative forcing, the differences between the various datasets are typically smaller than 5% and that the dependence on pressure and temperature is not significant. A “recommended' HFC-134a infrared absorption spectrum was obtained based on the average band intensities of the strongest bands. In the second step, the “recommended' HFC-134a spectrum was used in six different radiative transfer models to calculate the HFC-134a radiative forcing efficiency. The clear-sky instantaneous radiative forcing, using a single global and annual mean profile, differed by 8%, between the 6 models, and the latitudinally-resolved adjusted cloudy sky radiative forcing estimates differed by a similar amount. We calculate that the radiative forcing efficiency of HFC-134a is .     

A half-moment model for radiative transfer in a 3D gray medium and its reduction to a moment model for hot, opaque sources

We present in this paper a new 3D half-moment model for radiative transfer in a gray medium, called the model, which uses maximum entropy closure. This model is a generalization to 3D of the 1D version recently proposed in (J. Comp. Phys. 180 (2002) 584). The direction space Ω is divided into two pieces, Ω⁺ and Ω^-, in a dynamical way by the plane perpendicular to the total radiative flux, and the half moments are defined from these subspaces. The model closure and the integrations of the radiative transfer equation performed on the moving Ω^± spaces are detailed. 1D planar results, which have motivated the extension of the model of (J. Comp. Phys. 180 (2002) 584) to multi-dimensions, are shown. These results are very good. The model is thereafter derived for 3D spherically symmetric geometry, where the correctness of the non-trivial border terms can be checked. Two 3D spherically symmetric problems are numerically solved in order to show the accuracy of the closure and the role of the border terms. Once again, compared to the solution obtained with a ray tracing solver, results are very good. From the 3D half-moment model, a new moment model, called , is derived for the particular case of a 3D hot and opaque source radiating into a cold medium, for applications such as simulations of stellar atmospheres and fires. Two-dimensional numerical results are presented and compared to those obtained solving the RTE and with other moment models. They demonstrate the very good accuracy of the model, its good convergence properties, and better prediction compared to all other existing moment models in its domain of applicability.     

Extended discrete-ordinate method considering full polarization state

This paper presents an extension to the standard discrete-ordinate method (DOM) to consider generalized sources including: beam sources which can be placed at any (vertical) position and illuminate in any direction, thermal emission from the atmosphere and angularly distributed sources which illuminate from a surface as continuous functions of zenith and azimuth angles. As special cases, the thermal emission from the surface and deep space can be implemented as angularly distributed sources. Analytical-particular solutions for all source types are derived using the infinite medium Green's function. Radiation field zenith angle interpolation using source function integration is developed for all source types. The development considers the full state of polarization, including the sources (as applicable) and the (BRDF) surface, but the development can be reduced easily to scalar problems and is ready to be implemented in a single set of code for both scalar and vector radiative transfer computation.     

The Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal effect in QED

The calculation of the radiative energy loss encountered by a fast charged particle which undergoes multiple scattering is being investigated. A detailed derivation of the Landau-Pomeranchuk-Migdal coherent effect in QED is given, focusing on the specific feature of the Coulomb interaction. An exact derivation is provided in the paper following this one. As a result the radiation intensity per unit length in the coherent regime is shown to be proportional to √ω for a photon energy ω times a logarithmic enhancement which is determined exactly.     

Two-dimensional radiative transfer in a finite scattering planar medium

The source function, radiative flux, and intensity at the boundaries are calculated for a two-dimensional, scattering, finite medium subjected to collimated radiation. The scattering phase function is composed of a spike in the forward direction super-imposed on an isotropic background. Exact radiative transfer theory is used to formulate the problem and Ambarzumian's method is used to obtain results. Using the principle of superposition, the results for any step variation in incident radiation are expressed in terms of universal functions for the semi-infinite step case. Two-dimensional effects are most pronounced at large optical thicknesses and albedos.     

Spectral collocation method with a flexible angular discretization scheme for radiative transfer in multi-layer graded index medium

The spectral collocation method (SCM) is employed to solve the radiative transfer in multi-layer semitransparent medium with graded index. A new flexible angular discretization scheme is employed to discretize the solid angle domain freely to overcome the limit of the number of discrete radiative direction when adopting traditional S_N discrete ordinate scheme. Three radial basis function interpolation approaches, named as multi-quadric (MQ), inverse multi-quadric (IMQ) and inverse quadratic (IQ) interpolation, are employed to couple the radiative intensity at the interface between two adjacent layers and numerical experiments show that MQ interpolation has the highest accuracy and best stability. Variable radiative transfer problems in double-layer semitransparent media with different thermophysical properties are investigated and the influence of these thermophysical properties on the radiative transfer procedure in double-layer semitransparent media is also analyzed. All the simulated results show that the present SCM with the new angular discretization scheme can predict the radiative transfer in multi-layer semitransparent medium with graded index efficiently and accurately.     

The role of cloud-scale resolution on radiative properties of oceanic cumulus clouds

Both individual and combined effects of the horizontal and vertical variability of cumulus clouds on solar radiative transfer are investigated using a two-dimensional (x- and z-directions) cloud radar dataset. This high-resolution dataset of typical fair-weather marine cumulus is derived from ground-based cloud radar observations. The domain-averaged (along x-direction) radiative properties are computed by a Monte Carlo method. It is shown that (i) different cloud-scale resolutions can be used for accurate calculations of the mean absorption, upward and downward fluxes; (ii) the resolution effects can depend strongly on the solar zenith angle; and (iii) a few cloud statistics can be successfully applied for calculating the averaged radiative properties.     

On vector radiative transfer equation in curvilinear coordinate systems

The differential operator of polarized radiative transfer equation is examined in case of homogeneous medium in Euclidean three-dimensional space with arbitrary curvilinear coordinate system defined in it. This study shows that an apparent rotation of polarization plane along the light ray with respect to the chosen reference plane for Stokes parameters generally takes place, due to purely geometric reasons. Analytic expressions for the differential operator of transfer equation dependent on the components of metric tensor and their derivatives are found, and the derivation of differential operator of polarized radiative transfer equation has been made a standard procedure. Considerable simplifications take place if the coordinate system is orthogonal.     

Analytical evaluation of cylindrical exponential integrals arising in radiative transfer

New analytical results are presented performing to cylindrical exponential integral (CEI) functions for integer and noninteger values of parameter n. These integrals are often employed of two-dimensional radiative transfer in an absorbing-emitting medium and determination of the radiative flux in cylindrical media. The simple and efficient algorithm for the calculation of these functions is developed. The series expansion relations established in this work are accurate enough in the whole range of parameters.     

Examination of direct radiative capture formalism

Within the direct reaction framework the formalism and approximations used to describe particle radiative capture processes at low to medium energies are reviewed. Survey calculations documenting sizeable cross-section sensitivity to different forms of the electromagnetic interaction (Siegert's theorem versus $\text{J}\text{·}\text{A}$) that preserve overall gauge invariance are reported. The source of this large difference is the inconsistent use of different initial and final state model hamiltonians. This defect, common to most reaction theories using optical-model wave functions, generates wave function nonorthogonality effects which are found to be significant for M1 transitions. The importance of the spin-flip contribution to both electric and magnetic transitions is also investigated.     

Analytical approach for solving the radiative transfer equation in two-dimensional layered media

This study presents an analytical approach for obtaining Green's function of the two-dimensional radiative transfer equation to the boundary-value problem of a layered medium. A conventional Fourier transform and a modified Fourier series which is defined in a rotated reference frame are applied to derive an analytical solution of the radiance in the transformed space. The Monte Carlo method was used for a successful validation of the derived solutions.     

Discrete ordinate and Monte Carlo simulations for polarized radiative transfer in a coupled system consisting of two media with different refractive indices

We present an algorithm for polarized radiative transfer in a vertically stratified system consisting of two plane-parallel media with different refractive indices. It is based on the discrete ordinate method and includes multiple elastic scattering, thermal radiation, Fresnel reflection and transmission, incident parallel-beam or isotropic radiation at the top of the upper medium and bidirectional reflection at the bottom of the lower medium. Comparisons with results from Monte Carlo simulations show that the discrete-ordinate code provides accurate results for all four elements of the Stokes vector (I, Q, U, and V) at a speed that is orders of magnitude faster.