Solar radiative transfer in clouds using Eddington’s approximation

The present investigation deals with solar radiative transfer in horizontally stratified clouds. The approach taken is based on the Eddington approximation of radiative intensities applied to Chandrasekhar’s (1960) exact formulation of the radiative transfer equation. All important physical processes such as absorption by water vapor and cloud droplets as well as multiple scattering by the cloud droplets are taken into consideration. Comparisons are made with results derived from the exact solution of the radiative transfer equation. The weakness of Eddington’s approximation is discussed and an extension of the method is recommended.