Atmospheric and Marine Optics

Objectives:

Give advanced knowledge and skills in atmospheric and marine optics.

Content:

The course covers emission, absorption, scattering, and transport of electromagnetic radiation in the atmosphere and ocean. These optical processes are studied for frequencies ranging from infrared, through the visible, and into the ultraviolet. Further, the course contains topics such as blackbody radiation; emissivity; coherent versus incoherent radiation; interference; irradiance and radiance; multiple scattering; radiative transfer with multi-stream theory and Monte Carlo methods; polarization; and optical phenomena seen in nature. Physical foundations are given accompanied with applications in meteorology, climatology, solar energy harnessing, ocean color radiometry, and marine primary production.

On completion of the course the student should have the following learning outcomes

Knowledge

The student has

• advanced knowledge in atmospheric and marine optics at the graduate level

Skills

The student can

• explain fundamental principles behind emission, absorption, scattering, and transport of radiation in the atmosphere and ocean
• develop methods that solve the radiative transfer equation in order to obtain solar radiation energy, remote sensing signals, biological active radiation, etc
• assess the effect different greenhouse gases and surface brightness has on the atmospheric temperature
• explain the physics behind optical phenomena common to the atmosphere and ocean, such as halos, mirages, green flash, red sunset, blue twilight sky, as well as the blue and green color on oceans and icebergs