Department of Earth System Science

The equation of radiative transfer for a Rayleigh scattering atmosphere including polarization is reduced to an azimuth-independent form. The integro-differential equations are then solved by approximating the integrals as sums and the differentials as finite differences. The resultant set of equations is then solved by the Feautrier technique. This method can solve inhomogeneous atmospheres by allowing for arbitrary variations with depth of the single scattering albedo and the source term. As an example, zero-phase geometric albedos and center-to-limb intensities are calculated for a planetary disk with a semi-infinite pressure-induced absorbing atmosphere.