TIRT Study No. 9: Stokes Vector Formalism for the Source Radiance of an Opaque Body

Abstract

A simple and rigorous formalism is presented for describing the incoherent radiative properties of absorption, emission, and scattering of an opaque body in local thermodynamic equilibrium; polarization, inelastic scattering, and applied magnetic field effects are treated in full. The radiative behavior of such a body is shown to be completely characterized by the local bispectral bidirectional reflectivity matrix. Expressions for the emitted and reflected Stokes vectors of the source radiation are given in terms of this matrix. Use is made of the most general forms of the reciprocal relations and Kirchhoff's law; derivations for these are also provided.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 1991
Accession Number
ADA231551

Entities

People

  • Amnon Dalcher
  • Edwin C. Zimmermann

Organizations

  • Institute for Defense Analyses

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Air Platforms

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • Absorption
  • Electric Fields
  • Electromagnetic Fields
  • Electromagnetic Radiation
  • Electromagnetic Scattering
  • Emission
  • Equations
  • Equations Of Motion
  • Inelastic Scattering
  • Kirchhoff'S Law
  • Magnetic Fields
  • Materials
  • Polarization
  • Polarizing Filters
  • Radiation
  • Reflectivity
  • Surface Properties

Fields of Study

  • Physics

Readers

  • Calculus or Mathematical Analysis
  • Spectroscopy.