Three-dimensional radiative transfer

Abstract

An attempt is made to give an overview of the current status of three-dimensional (3D) radiative transfer, with some emphasis on cloud remote sensing, although it is close to impossible to cover this wide field on only four pages. Some examples of experimental evidence for 3D effects in radiative transfer are presented. It is outlined that 3D models have reached a mature status where they can be used for accurate forward simulations of radiances, irradiances, and actinic fluxes. Considerable efforts are made to provide realistic cloud structures as model input. Finally, some real applications of 3D radiative transfer are shown, in particular retrievals of inhomogeneous clouds from radiance observations