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Meteorological optics is "that part of atmospheric optics concerned with the study of patterns observable with the naked eye". [2] Nevertheless, the two terms are sometimes used interchangeably. Meteorological optical phenomena, as described in this article, are concerned with how the optical properties of Earth's atmosphere cause a wide range ...
Diagram showing displacement of the Sun's image at sunrise and sunset Comparison of inferior and superior mirages due to differing air refractive indices, n. Atmospheric refraction is the deviation of light or other electromagnetic wave from a straight line as it passes through the atmosphere due to the variation in air density as a function of height. [1]
The region above Earth's atmosphere, where there is no atmospheric attenuation of solar radiation, is considered to have "air mass zero" (AM0). Atmospheric attenuation of solar radiation is not the same for all wavelengths; consequently, passage through the atmosphere not only reduces intensity but also alters the spectral irradiance.
The optical atmospheric window is the optical portion of the electromagnetic spectrum that passes through the Earth's atmosphere, excluding its infrared part; [10] although, as mentioned before, the optical spectrum also includes the IR spectrum and thus the optical window could include the infrared window (8 – 14 μm), the latter is ...
The radiative transfer equation is a monochromatic equation to calculate radiance in a single layer of the Earth's atmosphere. To calculate the radiance for a spectral region with a finite width (e.g., to estimate the Earth's energy budget or simulate an instrument response), one has to integrate this over a band of frequencies (or wavelengths ...
Consider a body (for example a fixed volume of atmosphere) moving along at a given latitude at velocity in the Earth's rotating reference frame. In the local reference frame of the body, the vertical direction is parallel to the radial vector pointing from the center of the Earth to the location of the body and the horizontal direction is perpendicular to this vertical direction and in the ...
Earth's rotation axis moves with respect to the fixed stars (inertial space); the components of this motion are precession and nutation. It also moves with respect to Earth's crust; this is called polar motion. Precession is a rotation of Earth's rotation axis, caused primarily by external torques from the gravity of the Sun, Moon and other bodies.
The optical depth of the atmosphere can be measured with a Sun photometer. The optical depth with respect to the height within the atmosphere is given by [ 3 ] τ ( z ) = k a w 1 ρ 0 H e − z / H {\displaystyle \tau (z)=k_{\text{a}}w_{1}\rho _{0}He^{-z/H}} and it follows that the total atmospheric optical depth is given by [ 3 ] τ ( 0 ) = k ...