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Browse materialsMIT 12.815 · Fall 2006

Atmospheric Radiation

Art: http://www.geographicus.com/mm5/cartographers/dop…, Tabula Selenographica in qua Lunarium Macularum exacta Descriptio…, 1707 · Public domain

Instructors: Dr. Robert McClatchey, Prof. Ronald G Prinn
Term: Fall 2006
Level: Graduate
What's inside: 1 lecture note · 21 other files · 3 web pages
Materials open: MIT OCW

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12.815 · Fall 2008 · Study here
12.815 · Fall 2006 · Study here (this version)

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About this course

Source: MIT OpenCourseWare 12.815 Atmospheric Radiation, Fall 2006, Dr. Robert McClatchey, Prof. Ronald G Prinn — original course page on ocw.mit.edu ↗. License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Study order: MIT's own listing order, section by section. Taken from MIT's published course files, downloaded from ocw.mit.edu on September 23, 2026. How RedLectern is built.

Materials are grouped the way MIT organized them. A verified, course-wide order has not been established here.

Before you start

Prerequisites are not listed here. Check MIT's own syllabus for this course.

This course’s cited books, in our reading lists: An Introduction to Atmospheric Radiation · Atmospheric Radiation

How this course was organized

What's here, and what isn't

A lecture sequence of 14 items is confirmed. It stays as organized materials rather than a full course order.

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Materials by section

Grouped by section, as MIT organized them. Not sequenced or ordered.

Lecture Notes

7 files

Assignments

14 files

MIT OpenCourseWare, Dr. Robert McClatchey, Prof. Ronald G Prinn, 12.815 Atmospheric Radiation, Fall 2006.

License: CC BY-NC-SA 4.0 · Edition: Fall 2006 · Open the original course on OCW ↗

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Atmospheric Radiation

Before you start

What's here, and what isn't

Not included here

Materials by section

Lecture Notes

Assignments

Lecture 1: Course Overview and Role of Radiation in Climate System (P and M) Global Energy Budget Chemical Composition and Radiative Effects Thermal Structure of the Atmosphere

Lecture 2: Physics of Radiation (P) Thermodynamic Concepts Energy Levels in Molecules

Lecture 3: Molecular Spectroscopy (P) Absorbtion and Emission Rules Spectra (Rotational, Vibrational, Electronic) Line Shapes

Lecture 4: Equation of Radiative Transfer (M) Derivation - Special Cases

Lecture 5: Equation of Radiative Transfer (cont.) (M) Fluxes and Simple Solutions - Radiative Equilibrium Approximation (Exercise 1)

Lecture 6: Modeling Atmospheric Transmission and Emission (M) The HITRAN Data Base and Applications (Exercise 2)

Lecture 7: Modeling Atmospheric Transmission and Emission (cont.) (M) Band Models (Weak Line, Strong Line, Random, Regular, k Distribution)

Lecture 8: Modeling Atmospheric Transmission and Emission (cont.) (M) MODTRAN - R.M. (Exercise 3)

Lecture 9: Scattering of Radiation by Molecules and Particles (1 Class Period) (M) Single Scattering Size Distributions Mie Scattering (Exercise 4)

Lecture 10: Multiple Scattering (1 Class Period) (M) Discrete Ordinates (Exercise 5)

Lecture 11: Remote Sensing (4 Class Periods) (cont.) (M) Scattered Sunlight (Observations from Ground, from Satellite) Retrieval of Gases, Particulate Information, Surface Properties

Lecture 12: Remote Sensing (cont.) (M) Thermal Emission Weighting Functions Temperature and Water Vapor Retrieval Limb Scanning

Lecture 13: Remote Sensing (cont.) (M) Application of MODTRAN to Remote Sensing (Exercise 6)

Lecture 14: Remote Sensing (cont.) (M) Miscellaneous Topics and Summary (Microwave Remote Sensing, Active Remote Sensing - LIDAR and RADAR)