TABLE OF CONTENTS It is hard to imagine a subject more complex, and yet more useful, than the study of the propagation of light in the atmosphere. Because of its importance in a wide variety of human enterprises, considerable attention has been paid to this topic for several centuries. Initially, the effort was dedicated to learning how the apparent size and shape of distant objects depend on the properties of the atmosphere.
Maturation of the field of spectroscopy led to a formal understanding of the absorption spectra of significant atmospheric species and their variation with altitude. Computer models that include virtually all that is known about the absorption and scattering properties of atmospheric constituents have been assembled and can provide very complete descriptions of transmission as a function of wavelength with a spectral resolution of about 1 cm ?1. This is equivalent to a wavelength resolution of 0.1 nm at a wavelength of 1 ?m.
In addition to gradually refining our understanding of atmospheric absorption by considering the combined effect of the constituents, we also have developed a rather complete and elaborate theory of scattering in the atmosphere. The modern model of the scattering of the atmosphere owes its roots to the efforts of Mie and Rayleigh. Their results have been extended greatly by the use of computer modeling, particularly in the field of multiple scattering and Monte Carlo methods. For suspended particulates of known optical properties, reliable estimates of scattering properties for both plane and spherical waves can...
