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Computational Methods in Transport pp 85–140Cite as

Effective Propagation Kernels in Structured Media with Broad Spatial Correlations, Illustration with Large-Scale Transport of Solar Photons Through Cloudy Atmospheres

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Part of the book series: Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering ((LNCSE,volume 48))

Abstract

It is argued that, to directly target the mean fluxes through a structured medium with spatial correlations over a significant range of scales that includes the mean-free-path, one can use an effective propagation kernel that will necessarily be sub-exponential. We come to this conclusion using both standard transport theory for variable media and a point-process approach developed recently by A. Kostinski. The ramifications of this finding for multiple scattering and effective medium theory are examined. Finally, we describe a novel one-dimensional transport theory with asymptotically power-law propagation kernels and use it to shed new light onto recent observations of solar photon pathlength in the Earth’s cloudy atmosphere.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Los Alamos National Laboratory, Space & Remote Sensing Sciences Group ISR-2, Los Alamos, New Mexico, 1663, USA

    Anthony B. Davis

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  1. Anthony B. Davis
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  1. Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory, East Avenue 7000, Livermore, CA, 94550, U.S.A.

    Frank Graziani

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Davis, A.B. (2006). Effective Propagation Kernels in Structured Media with Broad Spatial Correlations, Illustration with Large-Scale Transport of Solar Photons Through Cloudy Atmospheres. In: Graziani, F. (eds) Computational Methods in Transport. Lecture Notes in Computational Science and Engineering, vol 48. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-28125-8_5

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