Clouds affect the climate of the Earth, and they are an important factor in the weather. Therefore, their radiative properties must be understood in great detail. This book summarizes current knowledge on cloud optical properties, for example their ability to absorb, transmit, and reflect light, which depends on the clouds' geometrical and microphysical characteristics such as sizes of droplets and crystals, their shapes, and structures. In addition, problems related to the image transfer through clouds and cloud remote sensing are addressed in this book in great detail.
This book can serve as a major introductory text in cloud optics for students; it can also be an important source of information on theoretical cloud optics for cloud physicists, meteorologists and optical engineers.
All basic ideas of optics as related to scattering of light in clouds (e.g. Mie theory and radiative transfer) are considered in a self consistent way. Consequently, the book can also be a useful textbook to newcomers to the field.
About the Author: Education:
PhD: Optics, B. I. Stepanov Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus, Minsk,
Belarus, 1991.
Title of PhD thesis: " The dependence of light scattering characteristics of aerosols and foams on their microstructure."
Master of Science: Theoretical Physics, Belarussian State University, Minsk, Belarus, 1983.
Title of thesis: "The asymptotic light regime in deep layers of optically active light scattering media."
Main research areas:
Radiative transfer, multiple and single light scattering, optics of aerosols and hydrosols, foams, snow and clouds, inverse problems, remote sensing of atmosphere and ocean.
Present position:
Senior Researcher
Laboratory of Light Scattering Media Optics
B. I. Stepanov Institute of Physics, National Academy of Sciences of Belarus
Skarina Avenue 72, Minsk 220072, Belarus
November 1983- Present
and
Institute of Environmental Physics and Remote Sensing, Bremen University, Bremen, Germany
March 2001 - Present
