SYSTEMATIC EFFECTS OF RANDOMNESS IN RADIATIVE-TRANSFER

In this paper, the authors show how the variability of the water conte nt in individual clouds, the complexity of individual cloud structure, and the lateral and vertical heterogeneity of the distribution of ind ividual clouds can produce systematic effects in the inversion of inte nsity distributions and the inference of source functions and the vert ical temperature profile. This is possibly very significant, even in s imple applications of radiative transfer theory where multiple scatter ing is not very important, in light of the randomness in the water vap or content and geometry associated with the microphysics of clouds. A practical procedure is provided to quantify this effect and to obtain, in certain circumstances, an improved estimate of the vertical temper ature profile.