Rightfulness of Summation Cut-Offs in the Albedo Problem with Gaussian Fluctuations of the Density of Scatterers

The one-dimensional version of the radiative transfer problem (i.e. the so-called rod model) is analysed with a Gaussian random extinction function (x). Then the optical length X = ₀ ^Ldx(x) is a Gaussian random variable. The transmission and reflection coefficients, T(X) and R(X), are taken as infinite series. When these series (and also when the series representing T ²(X), T ²(X), R(X)T(X), etc.) are averaged, term by term, according to the Gaussian statistics, the series become divergent after averaging. As it was shown in a former paper by the authors (in Acta Physica Slovaca (2003)), a rectification can be managed when a `modified' Gaussian probability density function is used, equal to zero for X > 0 and proportional to the standard Gaussian probability density for X > 0. In the present paper, the authors put forward an alternative, showing that if the m.s.r. of X is sufficiently small in comparison with , the standard Gaussian averaging is well functional provided that the summation in the series representing the variable T ^m-j (X)R ^j (X) (m = 1,2,..., j = 1,...,m) is truncated at a well-chosen finite term. The authors exemplify their analysis by some numerical calculations.