Invariant Imbedding and the Radiation Transfer in a Plane-Parallel Inhomogeneous Atmosphere

Abstract

The invariant imbedding technique is applied to the problems of radiation transfer in a plane-parallel inhomogeneous atmosphere. All the parameters which describe the elementary event of scattering and the distribution of the energy sources are allowed to vary with depth. Mathematically, the considered standard problems of the theory are reduced to initial-value problems which are better adapted to capabilities of the modern high speed computers. The reflectance of an atmosphere is shown to play a prominent role in describing the diffusion process since all the other characteristics of the radiation field are expressed through it. Three transfer problems frequently encountered in astrophysical applications are discussed: the radiation diffusion in the source-free medium, in a medium with arbitrarily distributed energy sources, as well as the problem of finding the statistical mean quantities, characteristics of the multiple scattering in the atmosphere.