Atmospheric Transmission from a 4-π Light Source to a 2-π Receiver

This survey report points out the progress and insufficiencies in the assessment and prediction of atmospheric effects on thermal adiation from an effective point source in the troposphere to a 2-pi sr receiver at the ground. Major findings of investigators during he past two decades are summarized, which also provide additional conclusions. Complicated transmission problems can, futhermore, e treated theoretically by assuming model type atmospheres and solving the radiation transfer equation by an available technique such as the Monte Carlo method. Some of the major results of this method are also presented.