Lecture Notes

(S): Lecture taught by Prof. Sara Seager

(M): Lecture taught by Dr. Robert McClatchey

LEC #	TOPICS	LECTURE NOTES	NOTES
1	Course overview and role of radiation in climate system (S and M)	(PDF)	Lecture 1 - Global energy Budget - Chemical composition and radiative effects - Thermal structure of the atmosphere
2	Physics of radiation (S)	(PDF)	Lecture 2 - Thermodynamic concepts - Energy levels in molecules
3	Molecular spectroscopy (S)	(PDF)	Lecture 3 - Absorbtion and emission rules - Spectra (rotational, vibrational, electronic) - Line shapes
4-5	Equation of radiative transfer (M)	(PDF)	Lecture 4 - Derivation - special cases Lecture 5 - Fluxes and simple solutions - radiative equilibrium approximation
6-8	Modeling atmospheric transmission and emission (M)	(PDF)	Lecture 6 - The HITRAN data base and applications Lecture 7 - Band models (weak line, strong line, random, regular, k Distribution) Lecture 8 - MODTRAN - R.M.
9-10	Scattering of radiation by molecules and particles (M) Multiple scattering (M)	(PDF)	Lecture 9 - Single scattering - Size distributions - Mie scattering (Exercise 4) Lecture 10 - Discrete ordinates
11-14	Remote sensing (M)	(PDF)	Lecture 11 - Scattered sunlight (observations from ground, from satellite) - Retrieval of gases, particulate information, surface properties Lecture 12 - Thermal emission - Weighting functions - Temperature and water vapor retrieval - Limb scanning Lecture 13 - Application of MODTRAN to remote sensing Lecture 14 - Miscellaneous topics and summary (microwave remote sensing, active remote sensing - LIDAR and RADAR)

Course Info